ILLNESS COGNITIONS IN PATIENTS WITH TEMPOROMANDIBULAR DISORDERS

Background: Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) is a term covering heterogeneous musculoskeletal disorders, including the temporomandibular joint and related structures. Pain is a common symptom in TMD. Chronic pain is a condition that affects the physical, psychological, cognitive and social domains of people who frequently have negative effects on quality of life. Illness cognitions is defined that patients who have a chronic illness have their own beliefs about their illness. In another saying, illness cognitions contain patient’s perception and understanding of the disease and its treatment. Material and Methods: This study was performed on 80 patients who applied to clinic with chronic TMD disorder. A written consent was obtained from the appropriate participants and the Illness Cognition Questionnaire (ICQ) forms were filled in by the patients under the guidance of the researchers. The statistical software SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences, Version 20, Chicago IL, USA) was used. Results: ICQ subscores of individuals with TMD: The mean score was 16.95 (SD = 4.05) for helplessness, 10.36 (SD = 3.14) for acceptance, and 15.55 (SD = 3.70) for perceived benefits. There was a statistically significant intra class correlation of 93.8% (0.915-0.957) among the Acceptance and 92.5% (0.896-0.948) among the Perceived benefits scale scores of the participants. Conclusion: Psychological interventions that can create a positive perception against TMD and highlight the ability to overcome problem-oriented TMD, can prevent the disease from controlling the daily life of people with TMD in a positive way and can help to affect the health promotion process positively.