2022 Volume 43 Issue 1 Pages 34-39
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease mainly caused by chronic inflammation in the joints. One of the symptoms is temporomandibular joint disorder, resulting in limited mouth-opening, which may obstruct dental treatment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mouth-opening and backgrounds of patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, and whether there is a difference in mouth-opening compared to healthy subjects and whether it is related to therapeutic procedures.
We surveyed 464 patients who visited the clinic of a rheumatoid arthritis specialist and 280 rheumatoid-free dental patients who visited a general dental clinic. The maximum self-opening of the mouth of the subjects was measured. In addition to the age and gender of both groups, the rheumatoid arthritis patient group was also investigated and statistically examined regarding the duration of disease, Steinbrocker’s degree of joint destruction and dysfunction, disease activity index DAS 28, and therapeutic agents. The amount of opening was 44mm in the rheumatoid arthritis group and 50mm in the healthy group, revealing a significant difference between the two groups. Furthermore, in the survey of the rheumatoid arthritis group, there was a significant difference in the duration of disease and degree of dysfunction among the patients.
The mouth-opening of the rheumatoid arthritis patient group was smaller than that of the healthy subject group, suggesting that dental treatment may be hindered. It was considered as a factor that the opening amount decreases according to the duration of disease and that the degree of dysfunction increases. The results show that earlier rehabilitation, including maintenance of mouth-opening by dental treatment, leads to improvement of QOL.
