Limited Jaw Movements and Somatization (But Not Pain) May Play a Role in Salivary Flow in Female Patients with Temporomandibular Disorders

Aims: To explore the unstimulated salivary flow rate and subjective feeling of oral dryness in young adult women with temporomandibular disorders (TMD) and their relation to the presence of chronic pain, depression, somatization, and limited mandibular mobility. Methods: Unstimulated whole saliva flow rate and presence of oral dryness were determined in 45 women with TMD and 30 healthy controls. The Research Diagnostic Criteria for TMD (RDC/TMD) were used for assessment of TMD, chronic pain, depression, somatization, and mandibular mobility. Factors with P .05 in the bivariate analysis were included in multivariate modeling. Results: The TMD patients showed significantly diminished unstimulated salivary flow (P = .010) in comparison to controls, but there was no difference in subjective oral dryness. Within the TMD group, patients with mandibular hypomobility and free from somatization exhibited significantly lower salivary output (P = .037; P = .015, respectively). No relationship between salivary flow and depression or TMD pain was observed. Multivariate linear regression identified somatization as the single variable contributing to salivary flow (P = .044) in the TMD patients. Conclusion: The present study shows a relationship between TMD and lower salivary flow but no evidence of a relationship between TMD and subjective oral dryness in young adult women. Somatization was the single variable to emerge from the evaluation of potential factors contributing to salivary output in TMD patients. Keywords: mouth dryness, RDC/TMD, salivation, temporomandibular disorders, women