Aural Symptoms and Signs of Temporomandibular Disorder in Association With Treatment Need and Visits to a Physician

• Published in: The Laryngoscope Vol. 109; no. 10; pp. 1669 - 1673
• Main Authors: Kuttila, Seppo, Kuttila, Maraana, Le Bell, Yrsa, Alanen, Pentti, Jouko, Suonpää
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, NJ John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01-10-1999; Wiley-Blackwell
• Subjects: Adult; Aural symptoms; Biological and medical sciences; Ear, auditive nerve, cochleovestibular tract, facial nerve: diseases, semeiology; Earache - complications; Facial bones, jaws, teeth, parodontium: diseases, semeiology; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Non tumoral diseases; Otorhinolaryngology. Stomatology; temporomandibular disorder; Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction Syndrome - complications; Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction Syndrome - therapy; Tinnitus - complications; treatment need; visits to physician; Human; Ear disease; Stomatology; Indication; Diseases of the osteoarticular system; Temporomandibular joint; Symptomatology; Concomitant disease; Treatment; Dysfunction; Ear; ENT disease; Lesion; Maxillary disease
• ISSN: 0023-852X; 1531-4995
• DOI: 10.1097/00005537-199910000-00022

Objectives: To analyze associations between aural symptoms and clinical signs of and treatment need for temporomandibular disorders, as well as visits to a physician, in a Finnish population.
Study Design: A longitudinal study of a random sample of adults.
Methods: Four hundred eleven subjects (203 men and 208 women aged 25, 35, 45, 55, or 65 years at baseline) were examined and interviewed at three consecutive examinations at 12‐month intervals, and a questionnaire on visits to physician during the preceding 12 months was completed.
Results: The aural symptoms were common. The prevalence of otalgia without infection varied between 12% and 16%, while the prevalence of tinnitus and fullness of ears was 12% to 17% and 5% to 9%, respectively. Women had more aural symptoms than men. When compared with the other subjects, the subjects with aural symptoms more often had masticatory muscles that were tender to palpation or temporomandibular joint signs. Subjects with obvious treatment need for temporomandibular disorders had more aural symptoms than subjects in the other treatment need subgroups. They also visited a physician more often because of otalgia than the subjects with otalgia in the other treatment need subgroups.
Conclusions: In patients with otalgia, infectious otolaryngologic diseases should be ruled out. Then the patients without infection should be remitted to a dentist with stomatognathic experience. In the absence of temporomandibular disorders, further medical consultations (e.g., otorhinolaryngological, neurological, physiatric, and psychiatric) are indicated.