Background: Physiotherapy is one of the most referenced and effective conservative strategies for treating patients with temporomandibular disorders (TMD). This study aimed to characterize and analyze the self-knowledge of TMD of Portuguese physiotherapists.
Methods: an online questionnaire was carried out, and the data collected were descriptively analyzed.
Results: A total of 338 physiotherapists participated, of which only 142 treated patients with TMD. Seventy-six percent of the physiotherapists reported that they had not received training in the TMD area during the physiotherapy degree course. Only 11% of the physiotherapists reported that treating patients with TMD adequately identified all symptoms of TMD.
Conclusions: the present study showed that it is necessary to integrate TMD-related content into the basic training of physiotherapists and promote an increase in evidence-based training.
Keywords: education; physiotherapy; self-knowledge; temporomandibular disorder; treatment.