Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) represent a group of chronic painful conditions involving the muscles of mastication and the temporomandibular joint. Several studies have reported that TMD is associated with enhanced sensitivity to experimental pain. Twenty-three TMD subjects and 24 pain-free matched control subjects participated in a set of studies which were designed to evaluate whether the temporal integrative aspects of thermal pain perception are altered in TMD patients compared with control subjects. Specifically, we have examined in both TMD patients and in age- and gender-matched control subjects: (1) the time-course and magnitude of perceived pain evoked by the application of sustained 7-s noxious thermal stimuli (45-48 degrees C) to the face and forearm, (2) the central summation of C-fiber-mediated pain produced by applying brief trains of noxious heat pulses to the skin overlying the ventral aspect of the right palm and (3) the ability to discriminate small increments in noxious heat applied to facial and volar forearm skin. Data collected from these studies indicate that TMD patients show enhanced temporal integration of thermal pain compared with control subjects. TMD patients show greater thermal C-fiber-mediated temporal summation than pain-free subjects and they report a greater magnitude of sustained noxious heat pulses applied to either the face or the forearm than control subjects. In contrast to these findings, TMD and pain-free subjects are equally able to discriminate and detect small increments of heat applied to noxious adapting temperatures. These findings suggest that the augmented temporal integration of noxious stimuli may result from alterations in central nervous system processes which contribute to the enhanced pain sensitivity observed in TMD patients.