Juvenile Arthritis and Development of Symptoms of Temporomandibular Disorders: A 15-year Prospective Cohort Study

Aim: To compare the development of symptoms of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) in a sample of patients with juvenile arthritis (JA) and a matched control sample. Methods: In 1986, 40 patients with JA (28 girls and 12 boys; mean age ± SD, 18 ± 4.5 years) and an age- and sex-matched control sample were examined for signs and symptoms of TMD. Fifteen years later in 2001, a questionnaire concerning symptoms of TMD was sent to these subjects. Twenty-eight individuals (68%) in the JA sample (20 women and 8 men; mean age ± SD, 35 ± 5.2 years) and 26 controls (19 women and 7 men; 34 ± 4.0 years) were available for the follow-up. Results: The overall prevalence of symptoms of TMD increased between the 2 examinations in both groups. The prevalence of reported TMD symptoms, such as jaw pain, fatigue in the jaws, and difficulty opening the jaws wide, as well as awareness of tooth clenching, headaches, neck and shoulder pains, was significantly greater among the JA sample than among the controls at the follow-up. Conclusion: The study indicates that prevalence of pain and dysfunction in the craniofacial or cervical regions of JA patients is increased more than 20 years after the onset of JA compared to healthy individuals. Keywords: epidemiology, juvenile arthritis, longitudinal study, orofacial pain, temporomandibular joint