Prevalence and severity of temporomandibular disorders in a group of iranian musicians

Abstract

Objective

Allegedly playing a musical instrument is a contributing factor to developing TMD signs and symptoms, but the literature is incoherent. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of TMD among amateur musicians for the first time in the Iranian population.

Methods

This is a descriptive questionnaire-based cross-sectional study that includes 140 amateur musicians (35 international wind instrumentalists, 35 traditional wind instrumentalists, 35 international string instrumentalists, and 35 traditional string instrumentalists). Forty-eight violinists were studied separately from other study groups. The Fonseca questionnaire was used to evaluate TMD in this sample. A P-value of 0.05 was considered significant.

Results

The Prevalence of the study sample was 72.8 %. The prevalence of TMD and the mean severity score among musicians of international wind instruments, traditional wind instruments, international string instruments, and traditional string instruments were 77.1 %, 67.6 %, 82.8 %, and 62.8 %, and 30.00 ± 15.52, 32.42 ± 14.92, 30.71 ± 18.75, and 28.57 ± 19.87, respectively. The study groups did not show any significant differences regarding the TMD severity score. The prevalence of TMD was higher among women (P = 0.000017) and wind instrumentalists (P = 0.009). The prevalence of TMD and the mean severity score among violinists were 62.85 % and 26.85 ± 20.68, respectively.

Conclusions

Regardless of class or category, the prevalence of TMD is high among musicians compared to the available statistics reported previously on the Iranian population in the literature. Moreover, TMD prevalence is higher among wind instrumentalists than string instrumentalists.