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Prevalence of troublesome symptoms related to temporomandibular disorders and awareness of bruxism in 65- and 75-year-old subjects.

OBJECTIVE
To assess the prevalence of three troublesome temporomandibular disorder (TMD) symptoms and awareness of bruxism in two cohorts of subjects aged 65 and 75 years.


BACKGROUND
Epidemiological studies have demonstrated varying prevalence of TMD symptoms. The results concerning elderly people are inconclusive.


MATERIAL AND METHODS
In 2007 identical questionnaires were sent to all subjects born in 1942 and 1932 living in two Swedish counties. The response rate was 73.1% for the 65- and 71.9% for the 75-year-old subjects, totally 9093 subjects.


RESULTS
The great majority reported no or only a few TMD problems. Less than 4% considered their TMD symptoms to be rather great or severe. The mean prevalence of TMD-related symptoms and bruxism was greater in women than in men in both age groups. The 75-year-old women reported a marked lower prevalence of TMD symptoms and bruxism than the 65-year-old women, whereas the age differences were small among the men. Self-reported bruxism was associated with a higher prevalence of TMD symptoms.


CONCLUSIONS
The great majority of the subjects did not report any troublesome TMD related symptoms. However, 5.4% of the 65-year-old women and 3.8% of the 75-year-old women considered their symptoms severe or rather severe.