Abstract:

Aim: To determine if the prevalence of systemic joint hypermobility and temporomandibular disorders (TMD) is higher during pregnancy or not and also to confirm a correlation between systemic joint hypermobility and TMD. Methods: 70 pregnant and 40 age-matched non pregnant women were enrolled in the study. 30% of the pregnant women were in the first trimester of gestation, 34.3% of them were in the second, and 35.7% of them were in the third trimester. All of the subjects completed a self-administered questionnaire, and underwent a standardized clinical examination using the Research Diagnostic Criteria for TMD (RDC/TMD). Hypermobility was determined according to the criteria of Beighton et al. Results: 7.1% of the pregnant women and 7.5% of the non-pregnant women received an RDC/TMD Axis I diagnosis (p> 0.05). 31.4% of the pregnant women and 40% of the non-pregnant women had systemic joint hypermobility (p> 0.05). Among all subjects who received a RDC/TMD Axis I diagnosis, 35.3% had systemic joint hypermobility and among all subjects who did not meet criteria to receive a RDC/TMD Axis I diagnosis, 25% had systemic joint hypermobility (p> 0.05). Conclusion: The prevalence of TMD and systemic joint hypermobility were not high among pregnant women compared to age matched non-pregnant women. And we were not able to confirm a correlation between systemic joint hypermobility and TMD.

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