Association between awake oral parafunctional behaviors and temporomandibular disorders

Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) represent a very common public health problem. Awake oral parafunctional behaviors may contribute to their establishment. They include oral habits that differ from physiological functional needs such as mastication, communication, swallowing or breathing and they could be considered as adverse behaviors because of their detrimental effects on teeth, temporomandibular joints and jaw muscles. Awake oral parafunctions can be detected through surface electromyography (EMG) or questionnaires completed from the patient, like the Oral Behaviors Checklist (OBC). This thesis is the result of researches showing that a strong relationship between such behaviors and TMD exists, by confirming what widely explained in literature. The strength of the present findings is that they have been obtained through standardized Diagnostic Criteria (DC) to make TMD diagnosis and through valid methods for the assessment of wake-time oral parafunctions. Based on these data, clinicians should focus on the reduction of awake parafunctions in the multifactorial treatment of patients affected from TMD by carefully administering them a correct behavioral counselling. Therefore, this might reduce the overload on temporomandibular joint and consequently the development of TMD. However, more researches based on greater samples and standardized methods, should be conducted to expand and clarify the knowledge about this controversial topic.