The Relationship among Pain Perception, Severity of Temporomandibular Disorders, and Spinal Health in Older Adults: Cross-sectional Study

Aim; It was aimed to determine pain perception, temporomandibular disorders (TMD) severity, and spine functionality and the relationship between them in older adults. Method; A total of 301 individuals (177 women and 124 men) with an average age of 71.57±6.30 years (range 65-95) participated in the study. Musculoskeletal pain (MP), neck pain (NP), and low back pain (LBP) were each assessed separately, along with pain perception, tolerance to discomfort, spinal functional status, and temporomandibular disorders severity. These were measured using the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), Centrality of Pain Scale (COPS), Discomfort Intolerance Test (DIT), Spine Functional Index (SFI), and Fonseca Anamnestic Index (FAI), respectively. Relationships between parameters were analyzed with Pearson correlation analysis, and gender differences were examined using Multivariate Analysis of Covariance. Results; The relationship between MP with NP (0.518) and LBP (0.520) and between SFI with COPS (-0.593) was moderate to good. The relationship between MP with COPS (0.485), SFI (-0.372), FAI (0.332); and between NP with LBP (0.495) and FAI (0.453); between LBP with COPS (0.412), SFI (-0.409) and FAI (0.366); and between FAI with COPS (0.377) and SFI (-0.352) was low to fair. Differences were observed between female and male individuals in terms of Mini Mental Test, MP, NP, LBP, COPS, DIT, SFI, and FAI scores (p< 0.05). Conclusion; It should be taken into consideration that MP may increase with the increase in NP and LBP, and spinal functionality may decrease with the increase in pain perception.