Abstract

Objective The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the habitual chewing side and the presence of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) in young adults. Materials and methods An analytical case-control and simple blind study was performed on 70 young adult subjects (22-26 years) from the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of Chile. The masticatory functional angle (MFA) was used to determine the habitual chewing side in all subjects, as well as applying the Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (RDC/TMD) in order to determine the type of TMD and the most prevalent side. Data were analysed using Chi squared test and Fisher's exact test (95% CI). Results A total of 56 subjects (80.0%) were unilateral chewers and 14 (20.0%) were bilateral chewers. A diagnosis of TMD was made in 34 (48.6%) subjects according to RDC/TMD, while 36 individuals (51.4%) showed no evidence of any disorder. There were no differences between unilateral chewing and the presence of TMD (p=0.63). There was a high trend between unilateral chewing and presence of joint disease (groups ii and iii, RDC/TMD) (p=0.06). Conclusion Despite a high trend between unilateral chewing and joint disease observed, the relationship between the type of chewing and TMD has not been established. No relationship was found between the chewing side and its coincidence with the disease side. This could be because of the different factors involved in TMD.