Aim: This study aims to present both the features of 124 consecutive patients with temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) and the results of a reversible, conservative, and low-tech treatment.
Methods and materials: One hundred fifty-eight records of consecutive patients treated in School of Dentistry at the Univag-University Center in Várzea Grande-MT, Brazil, 124 of whom were considered TMD patients, were examined. The following data were obtained: gender, age, main complaint, diagnosis, co-morbidities, type of treatment performed, and treatment results. The patients who received a successful treatment were contacted for reevaluation four to six years after the conclusion of treatment.
Results: Pain was the main complaint for 92.7 percent of the patients. The majority of patients were female (female:male ratio of 4.1:1), with a peak age range between 20 and 30 years. Roughly 59.7 percent of the patients were diagnosed as having a muscular TMD, 12.9 percent as an articular TMD, and 27.4 percent as a mixed TMD. The success rate for treatment was 91.7 percent, and there was a tendency toward the long-term maintenance of good results.
Conclusion: The features of the 124 TMD patients treated were similar to those reported in the literature with regard to gender, age, and diagnostic prevalence. Most of the disorders were of a muscular origin, and there was a predominance of women between 20 and 30 years of age. The conservative, reversible, and low-tech treatment success rate for TMD can reach values above 90 percent. Therefore, there is no need for invasive, irreversible, expensive, or high-tech treatments for the majority of patients.
Clinical significance: The majority of TMD patients can benefit from reversible, conservative, and low-tech treatments such as parafunction control and therapeutic exercises that can be performed by any clinician once an accurate diagnosis has been made.