| Abstract: | A longitudinal study covering five years of clinical signs and subjective symptoms of mandibular dysfunction was performed in 119 adolescents, 15 years old at the first examination and 20 years old at the follow-up. Sixty-two percent had clinical signs of mandibular dysfunction, but the signs were in most cases mild, while moderate and severe signs were found in 17%. No change in clinical signs between the two examinations were noted in nearly half of the individuals, and improvement and impairment had occurred at an almost equal rate.At the follow-up, 31% of the participants reported that they sometimes had TMJ sound, tiredness in the jaws, or difficulties in mouth opening, and another 8% suffered from one or more of these symptoms frequently. The frequency of subjective symptoms as well as reports of bruxism had increased statistically significantly compared with five years previously.A statistically significant correlation was found between the subjective symptoms and the clinical dysfunction index used. No single subjective or clinical variable or combination of variables seemed to have any significant influence on the positive or negative changes of the clinical dysfunction index between the two examinations. The explanation suggested is that the development of clinical signs of mandibular dysfunction is very complex, including numerous variables, some of which were not recorded in the present investigation. |
