Epidemiological Study of Temporomandibular Disorders in Adolescents with Experience Playing Instruments

Abstract

Purpose: Playing instruments has been implicated in temporomandibular disorder (TMD) in youth. To date, however, there has been little research into clarifying the causal relationship between starting to play an instrument and the occurrence of symptoms. This study aims to clarify the conditions surrounding the occurrence of TMD symptoms in youth with experience playing an instrument, and to investigate the causal relationship between such experiences and the onset of TMD symptoms based on comparisons with adults.
Methods: The subjects were junior high school students in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, who responded to a questionnaire as part of an epidemiological survey. A similar questionnaire was also administered to adult for the sake of comparison. Points of analysis were the relationship between thetimeof onset of TMD symptom and the time of starting to play an instrument, the rate of occurrence of TMD symptoms, factors contributing to the onset of TMD symptoms, and the relationship between personality and onset of TMD symptoms.
Results: In both youth and adult, the rate of occurrence of TMD symptoms was higher in those with experience playing an instrument than in those without such experience. The time of onset tended to be either the same as the time for starting to play or later. In youth subjects with experience playing an instrument, daytime jaw clenching was associated with an onset of TMD symptoms, and those who experienced TMD symptoms tended to have a more neurotic personality than those who did not.
Conclusion: Some association was found between the time of starting to play an instrument and the time of the onset of TMD symptoms. However, this trend was seen in both youth and adult. These results suggest that internal factors play a large role in adolescents with experience playing an instrument.