TMD patients and psychosocial diagnostics

Background: The acquisition and evaluation of psychosocial patient characteristics is particularly difficult during the initial diagnosis of patients with temporomandibular dysfunctions (TMDs). The aim of this study was to evaluate a newly developed evaluation aid for psychosocial questionnaires. Materials and method: Patients (n = 30) with TMD complaints presented themselves for examination to students in the clinical stage of the study of dentistry and were examined according to physical and psychosocial criteria. In order to record the localization and chronification of pain and the characteristics of anxiety, depression, and the tendency to non-specific physical complaints, patients completed questionnaires and transferred the data to an evaluation sheet. Finally, the students evaluated the practicability of the evaluation sheet and assessed its usability in daily dental practice. Results: The survey of users (n = 30) showed that 60.0% of the students found the evaluation of the psychosocial questionnaires using the evaluation form easy, 23.3% assessed the use as partly difficult, and 16.7% as difficult. A total of 90.0% of the participants would use the questionnaires and the evaluation form in their future dental practice. Conclusion: The use of questionnaires in combination with a summarizing evaluation aid enables a user-friendly initial diagnosis in TMD patients. Keywords: pain, depression, anxiety, somatization, axis II, DC/TMD