Prevalence of TMJ Disorders in Competitive Swimmers: A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Swimming is an unique sport. It is the combination of upper limb and lower extremity strength exercise and also cardiovascular training in non-weight bearing environment . In competitive swimmers, there are four strokes freestyle, butterfly, backstroke, and breaststroke. Competitive swimmers trains 10,000 to 20,000 meter per day. At an average of 8 to 10 arm cycles per 25 meter. Swimmers push their body to the limits of the functions so normal variations in anatomy or biomechanics and poor technique may lead to overuse injuries and micro trauma. The most common swimming injuries are shoulder, neck and back. The prevalence of musculoskeletal injuries in competitive swimmers is, shoulder 37%, knee 28%, spine 22% and foot and ankle is 19%. Limited number of studies are available to find out the prevalence of TMJ disorders in competitive swimmers. This study puts in an effort to find the same.