Dental malocclusion is not related to temporomandibular joint clicking: a logistic regression analysis in a patient population

Objectives:To assess the association of several dental malocclusion features with temporomandibular joint (TMJ) click sounds in a population of temporomandibular disorder (TMD) patients.Materials and Methods:Four hundred forty-two TMD patients (72% female; 32.2 ± 5.7 years, range 25–44 years) were divided into a TMJ clicking and a no-TMJ clicking group, based on the Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (RDC/TMD) assessment. Seven occlusal features were recorded for each patient: (1) posterior crossbite, (2) overbite, (3) open bite, (4) overjet, (5) mediotrusive and (6) laterotrusive interferences and (7) retruded contact position to maximum intercuspation (RCP-MI) slide length. A logistic regression model was created to estimate the association of occlusal features with TMJ clicking.Results:The difference between the groups as for the prevalence of the various occlusal features was generally not statistically significant, with minor exceptions. Mediotrusive interferences (P  =  .015) and RCP-MI slide ≥2 mm (P  =  .001) were the two occlusal features that were associated with the probability of having TMJ clicking, even if the adjusted odds ratios for TMJ clicking were low for both variables (1.63 and 1.89, respectively). Moreover, the amount of variance in the prevalence of TMJ clicking that was predicted by the final model was as low as 4.5% (R²  =  0.045).Conclusions:Findings from the present investigation suggested that in a population of TMD patients, the contribution of dental malocclusion features to predict TMJ click sounds is minimal with no clinical relevance.