Association of oral over use behaviours and stress with Temporomandibular Disorders among adolescent’s in Vikarabad- A cross sectional study

Introduction: Oral overuse behaviors, which include activities beyond essential functions like chewing, swallowing, and talking, present differently across age groups. Objectives: To determine the association between Oral Overuse Behaviors with the Temporomandibular disorders (TMD’s). To determine the association between Stress with the TMD’s. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 725 students from Vikarabad Pre-University colleges were surveyed using a Personal History Questionnaire, the Oral Behavior Checklist, the Perceived Stress Questionnaire, and the Fonseca Questionnaire. Exclusions included students undergoing orthodontic treatment or recent oral or orthognathic surgeries, those absent on the day of data collection, and those unwilling to participate. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and linear regression using SPSS version 25. Results: Of the 725 participants, 372 (51.3%) were male, and 353 (48.7%) were female. The stress levels were as follows: 54.1% had moderate stress, 32% had low stress, and 13.9% had high stress. Regarding TMD, 34.6% had no TMD, while 5% had severe TMD. There was a significant correlation between TMD severity, oral overuse behaviors, and stress. The severity of TMD increased significantly with oral overuse behaviors and stress. With each additional year of age, TMD severity was predicted to increase by 2.88 units. Compared to males, females were 2.55 times less likely to have severe TMD. The independent variables together explained 55% of the variance in TMD severity. Conclusion: Both oral overuse behaviours and stress are significantly associated with TMD severity. The study indicates that as age increases, TMD severity tends to rise, and females are less likely to experience severe TMD compared to males. The independent variables accounted for 55% of the variance in TMD severity. Keywords: TMD, Oral Overuse Behaviours, Stress, Adolescents, Fonseca, Perceived Stress Scale.