Exploring the Four-Dimensional Impact of Pain-Related and/or Intra-Articular Temporomandibular Disorder Symptoms on Oral Health-Related Quality of Life Among Young Adults.

Abstract

Objectives: A four-dimensional structure for oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) was recently proposed, comprising oral function (OF), orofacial pain (OP), orofacial appearance (OA) and psychosocial impact (PI). This study examined the impact of different temporomandibular disorder (TMD) symptoms on the four OHRQoL dimensions in young adults. It also correlated the four dimensions with the seven Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) domains.

Methods: Young adults were recruited from a large university. The quintessential five TMD symptoms (5Ts) and OHIP-14 were used to assess TMD symptoms and OHRQoL. Participants were categorised into no (NT), pain-related (PT), intra-articular (IT) and combined (CT) TMD groups, and total, dimension and domain OHIP scores were computed. Data were evaluated using the chi-square test and non-parametric analyses (α = 0.05).

Results: Among the 1097 eligible participants (mean age 19.9 years [SD = 1.3]; 69.7% women), 47.2% reported no TMD symptoms, while 20.5%, 14.9% and 17.4% had PT, IT and CT TMD symptoms, respectively. Significant differences in OHIP scores were noted between individuals with and without TMD symptoms across all dimensions and domains (CT, PT, IT > NT). Additionally, notable distinctions in normalised dimension scores were evident in all participant groups (OP, OA > OF, PI). Moderate to strong correlations were discerned between OHIP dimensions and domain, except for OA with functional limitation (r_s = 0.35).

Conclusions: Adopting the four dimensions as the standard metric for assessing OHRQoL can improve study comparability and enhance understanding of TMD impacts.