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Updated: Mar 31, 2026

Temporomandibular Joint Pain Measurement by Bite Force and Von Frey Filament Assays in Mice
Published on: September 13, 2024
Orthodontics is temporomandibular disorder-neutral
Daniele Manfredini1, Edoardo Stellini2, Antonio Gracco3
1a Associate Professor, Temporomandibular Disorders Clinic, Section of Maxillofacial Surgery, Department of Neuroscience, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Objectives:
To assess if subjects with a clinical diagnosis of temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) have a similar prevalence of orthodontic history as a population of TMD-free individuals and to assess if those subjects who have a history of ideal orthodontics have fewer symptoms than those with a history of nonideal orthodontics.
Materials And Methods:
Two groups of age- and sex-matched individuals belonging to either a study ("TMD") or a control group were recruited. Subjects who underwent orthodontic treatment were classified as having a history of ideal or nonideal orthodontics based on the current presence of normal values in five reference occlusal features.
Results:
The correlation with a history of orthodontic treatment was not clinically significant for any of the TMD diagnoses (ie, muscle pain, joint pain, disc displacement, arthrosis), with Phi (Φ) coefficient values within the -0.120 to 0.058 range. Within the subset of patients with a history of orthodontics, the correlation of ideal or nonideal orthodontic treatment with TMD diagnoses was, in general, not clinically relevant or was weakly relevant.
Conclusions:
Findings confirmed the substantial absence of clinically significant effects of orthodontics as far as TMD is concerned. The very low correlation values of a negative or positive history of ideal or nonideal orthodontics with the different TMD diagnoses suggest that orthodontic treatment could not have a true role for TMD.
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