Evaluating the Effect of Complete Dentures on Signs and Symptoms of Temporomandibular Disorders Analyzed by Craniomandibular Index in Completely Edentulous Patients- A Study Protocol

Background: A Temporo-mandibular disorder (TMD) itself is a cumulative terminology used to indicate the situations which entails the pain alone or in association with dysfunction of the Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) with or without involving the associated structures. One of the main cause of developing TMD is the loss of tooth. The completely edentulous patients also have reported high prevalence of TMD as in dentulous patients.

Methods: It is a prospective interventional study that will be carried out in three years. The sample size will be those completely edentulous subjects, who has not used dentures for a duration of six months to five years of tooth extraction. Such subjects will then be subjected to anamnestic component of Helkimos Index for screening purpose.110 subjects exhibiting mild to severe signs and symptoms of Temporomandibular disorders will be considered as the study participants for the study. Study participants will be categorized as Group A (study participants having mild symptoms of TMD, n=55) and the second will be Group B (study participaants having severe symptoms of TMD, n=55). The Craniomandibular Index will be used to score the severity of the TMD before denture insertion. The initial recorded score will be then correlated with the score obtained after 3 months of delivery of denture. Descriptive as well as analytical statistics will be performed. The statistical relevance among the Group A and Group B before intervention and after 3months of intervention will be assessed at p<0.05.

Discussion: Through the study results we anticipate a fall in CMI score i.e improvement by lowering the intensity of TMD due to intervention by complete dentures in completely edentulous subjects. In case the above Hypothesis is not proved, then prevalence of TMD among patients who are completely edentulous needs to be anticipated with the factors such as anatomical or pathological diversities in TMJ and not to be associated with changes in vertical dimensions because of teeth loss.