Temporomandibular Disorders in Professional Scuba Divers-A Cross-Sectional Study.

Objectives

Most of the published literature on this topic argues about painful teeth, masticatory muscles, and/or temporomandibular joints in scuba divers. This study aimed to determine the possible differences in the prevalence of TMD between the diver population and the general population.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional epidemiological study. The standardized RDC/TMD protocol was used for both the study and the control group. A total of 84 individuals were randomly selected to participate in the study: 55 divers (study group) and 29 individuals from the general population (control group).

Results

There was a significant difference in the group 2 and group 3 RDC/TMD Axis I diagnoses between the study and the control group. Logistic regression analysis showed that the diver population was 15.8 times more likely to develop a group 2 left joint and 12 times more likely to develop a group 3 right joint diagnoses than the general population. The RDC/TMD Axis II diagnoses were also significantly higher in the study group than in the control group, whereby the divers were considerably older and predominantly male.

Conclusions

A higher prevalence of group 2 (disk displacements) and group 3 (other common joint disorders) diagnoses was found in the divers. However, these results should be taken considering the limitation that there was a lack of age and gender matching between the groups, which can cause confounding.