Awareness and Knowledge of General Dental Practitioners in Tamil Nadu towards Management of Temporomandibular Disorder: A Questionnaire-based Survey

Abstract

Introduction: The term “Temporomandibular disorders” (TMDs) refers to a broad range of problems, such as discomfort in the jaw muscles and Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) restrictions on the motions of the mandible, and intraarticular functional abnormalities, such as locking of the Jaw. A significant population of general dentists find the diagnosis of Temporomandibular disorders challenging and often complex. It aims to find out how general Practitioners and specialists in India perceive the difficulties in managing a patient with Temporomandibular disorders. This study will assist in determining if general practitioners or Temporomandibular disorders experts need further training in the diagnosis and management of Temporomandibular disorders. Materials and Methods: An electronic survey was carried out where in all the participants were sent mail giving description about the study as well as the survey link.  17 closed end questions were asked in the questionnaire. Then the survey data was then analyzed using statistical packages for social sciences (SPSS 18.0 VERSION IBM USA) Results: The results 114(89%) of the 128 research participants were dentists in active practice, with an average age of 24.80±1.63 years and a range of 22 to 31 years. Sixty-seven percent of the participants were female. Patients with TMD were treated by 72.7% of the study’s participating practitioners, while 26.6% of participants decided to send the patient to another dentist or educational facility. Conclusion: The results imply that General dentists practicing in Tamil Nadu, differ from one another in their approach to the diagnosis and management of Temporomandibular disorders. A vast majority of them treated patients with Temporomandibular disorders using occlusal splint therapy anticipating relief.  Therefore, to provide dental professionals confidence in treating Temporomandibular disorders, a valid, repeatable patient-centered procedure has to be developed. It would be more advantageous to include instruction on Temporomandibular disorders diagnosis in the undergraduate curriculum.