Association between stress and temporomandibular disorder samong students of final year at king khalid university college of dentistry/ abha- kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Introduction: Stress is considered to be the main factor responsible for the development of temporomandibular disorders. (TMD) These factors are more commonly seen to cause TMD in professional college students. The aim of this study is to correlate the stress factors in development of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) in professional college students at two different times: six months before and one on the week before their college semester final examinations. Methods: The survey was conducted using a questionnaire, consisting of age, sex, college specialty and 11questions addressing trismus, joint noise, pain, clenching in the daytime, nocturnal bruxism, stress and previous history of TMJ disorder. The survey was performed between September 2014 and July 2015, and the total number of subjects was 275. There were 126 males and 149 females and 98% of the group were above the age of 20. The relationships between questions were examined by the chi-square test. The level of significance was set at 0.05. Results: The prevalence rate of signs and symptoms of TMD, headache was 32% at the beginning of the semester and it was found to be slightly higher one week before the exam with 36.7%. Joint noise reported by 18.2% of the students at the beginning of the semester and a slightly higher 20.4% at one week before the examination. Pain in or around the jaw was also found to have a significant presence among the study group at both times. Stress was seen to be significantly associated with many reported signs and symptoms of TMD reported at one week before exam such as pain in or around jaws when opening and closing mouth, joint noise, night PFH and day PFH. Conclusion: It was concluded that students preparing to take professional college examinations are high risk group for developing temporomandibular disorder due to psychological factors causing anxiety and stress. The symptoms become more significant as the semester progresses, and both anxiety and stress increase as the examination dates approach.