2010 Volume 22 Issue 3 Pages 151-157
With the aim of formulating clinical practice guidelines for the initial treatment of temporomandibular disorders (TMD), we carried out semi-structured interviews with volunteer patients who had suffered from TMD for the purpose of collecting patient question. The subjects (informants) were recruited through two newspapers. The guidelines committee chose 10 subjects from the 19 applicants through careful discussion. The interviews were conducted by trained interviewers in a special interview room, and the answers given by the informants were tape-recorded and transcribed into sentences. From these sentences, important words and phrases were extracted using a text mining method. When asked about their understanding of TMD, four informants answered "A disease with jaw displacement" and another four said "A disease that occurs when one's occlusion is not good." Only one informant had been correctly educated about TMD by the dentist. Three informants had received mouthpiece therapy but none knew the importance of and reasons for providing this therapy. Six informants were satisfied with the treatment they had received, but two were not. Usually, mouth-opening exercises, massages, and compresses were chosen as management therapy for problems of joint noise, restriction in mouth opening, or joint pain; this was followed by jaw rest, chiropractic treatment, and mouthpiece therapy. This investigation revealed that all informants had only a superficial knowledge about the pathological conditions and treatment methods for TMD. It is suggested that dentists should provide patients with adequate education regarding the symptoms and treatments of TMD.
