Prevalence of temporomandibular disorder signs in patients with complete versus partial dentures

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of signs of a temporomandibular disorder (TMD) in completely edentulous patients wearing upper and lower complete dentures (CD) and to compare this to the prevalence of signs in partially edentulous patients wearing upper and lower clasp-retained acrylic removable partial dentures (RPD). Materials and methods: A questionnaire and a clinical examination were used to assess 200 patients. One hundred of these were complete denture wearers being treated for the provision of replacement CD. The other 100 patients were partially edentulous patients, who had RPD replacing upper and lower partially missing teeth and their supporting structures. Results: It was shown that there was a statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding the presence of temporomandibular signs. Partially edentulous patients wearing upper and lower RPD had a significantly higher prevalence of TMD signs than edentulous patients wearing CD (36% compared to 17%). They also exhibited significantly (P<0.04) more signs of joint tenderness (18%) on clinical examination compared to (5%) only in the CD-wearing patients. Tenderness upon palpation in the periauricular region was the most common site reported in both groups. Conclusions: The partially edentulous patients (wearing RPD) exhibited more TMD signs when compared with the CD-wearing patients. Significantly, more partially edentulous patients had joint tenderness (P<0.04) than did CD-wearing patients. The masseter muscle most commonly demonstrated muscle tenderness.