Influence of quality of total prostheses on the prevalence of temporomandibular disorder

Abstract Introduction Temporomandibular disorder (TMD) involves the mastication and temporomandibular articulation muscles. Completely toothless patients with prostheses should be thoroughly assessed since edentulism causes damage that can lead to TMD onset. Objective This study aims to assess the effect of the technical quality of total prostheses (TPs) on TMD occurrence in patients with bimaxillary TPs. Material and method 154 patients responded to a questionnaire to obtain personal data, information regarding prostheses, anamnestic index for TMD, and the prosthesis quality index. Result Of the 154 patients examined, 64 (41.6%) had no TMD, 61 (39.6%) had mild TMD, 23 (14.9%) moderate, and only 6 (3.9%) showed severe TMD. As for the quality of total prosthesis, 78 (50.6%) completely toothless individuals had satisfactory TPs while 76 (49.4) presented unsatisfactory prostheses. Regarding the time using total prosthesis, around 50% of individuals with up to 10 years use presented some degree of TMD and 70% of individuals with over 10 years presented TMD. Conclusion Considering the methodology used and the population studied, we conclude that the quality of the TPs did not influence the incidence of TMD.