Association between signs and symptoms of temporomandibular disorders and pregnancy (case control study)

Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) are a combination of multifactoral etiological muscular-skeletal symptoms. Prevalence is greater in women, where sexual hormones are important in pathogenesis, and its behavior at different stages of the reproductive life of women has never been fully documented. The general objective was to determine the association between signs and symptoms of temporomandibular disorders and pregnancy. A case-control study was conducted on 66 pregnant patients who met with a medical specialist and 66 non-pregnant women paired by age, who visited the General Regional Hospital 36 of Mexico's Social Security Institute (IMSS). These patients were examined for the Temporomandibular (TMD) research project to establish the prevalence of TMD in both groups. Descriptive variables were calculated through him SPSS 17 program and the association between groups with Xi Square and Ratio Possibilities (OR), The average age was 28.23 +/- 5.9 years in both groups, with median gestation 32.97 weeks. Most of the participants had a domestic partner. The prevalence of TDM in the non-pregnant group was 45.5% and only 15.2% in the pregnant group (chi2 = 14.34, p < .000). We calculated the ratio of possibilities (RP) pregnant/non-pregnant with a value of 41 with confidence intervals from 23 to 72. In conclusion, pregnancy protects women from TDM signs and symptoms. Pregnant women have a considerably lower prevalence of these disorders.