Estimation of the awareness of patients with temporomandibular joint diseases about the risks of symptoms and preventive measures

Aim: to estimate patients’ awareness of the risk of developing/increasing symptoms of their existing temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder and preventive measures. Materials and methods: of the 163 patients over 18 years old examined with a diagnosis according to ICD-10 K07.6. Temporomandibular joint diseases, who sought treatment for the restoration of chewing function and/or aesthetics of the dentition, 94 people were included in the study. The first stage of the study was a questionnaire consisting of two parts, namely, identifying the nature of complaints from the TMJ and cases of developing/worsening symptoms of TMJ diseases during therapeutic dental treatment, as well as awareness assessment of the risks of the mentioned above phenomenon during long-term therapeutic dental treatment. Results: this survey showed that women are more informed about the risk of developing symptoms of TMJ disease as a result of long-term therapeutic treatment compared to men (p = 0.021). When analyzing the presence of complaints about TMJ depending on awareness, the chance of the answer «there is a complaint» in the group of informed patients was several times lower compared to the group of respondents who did not have information about the possible negative impact of long-term dental therapeutic treatment on TMJ (p = 0.034). Conclusion: based on the conducted study, it can be concluded that patients with a diagnosis of K07.6. Diseases of the temporomandibular joint, informed about the features of their disease, less often have complaints from the TMJ.