Prevalence of oral and parafunctional habits in Nigerian patients suffering temporomandibular joint pain and dysfunction

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of oral and parafunctional habits in Nigerian patients suffering temporomandibular joint pain and dysfunction. It consisted of patients that were referred for treatment at the oral and maxillofacial surgery clinic of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria. A pre-designed data form was used to collect information on age, gender, reasons for attendance, joint pain, side of pain, clicking, oral habits known to patient, parafunctional habits, occlusion and dietary habits. A total of 29 patients comprising 48.3% male and 51.7% female in a male to female ratio of 1:1.1 were studied. Their age ranged from 17 to 70 years. Eighty two per cent of them complained of joint pain on presentation while 17.1% complained of muscle pain. The joint pain was mainly unilateral in 62.1% and bilateral in 20.7%. Twenty six (89.7%) patients indulged in oral and parafunctional habits such as unilateral mastication 65.5%, hand-on-chin posture 58.6%, clenching 17.2%, tooth grinding 13.8%, chewing gum 37.9%, and finger and nail biting 24.1%. In all, 31.0% of males and 34.5% of females had clicking joints. Reciprocal click was detected in 52.6% of the study sample. There was a prevalence of 89.7% of oral and parafunctional habits in Nigerian patients suffering temporomandibular joint pain and dysfunction.

Keywords: Mastication, clenching, grinding, chewing, clicking, pain

Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Research Vol. 4 (1) 2005: pp. 59-64