Temporomandibular Disorder Education Amongst Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics Postgraduate Programs

The increasing prevalence of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) amongst youth highlights the importance of ensuring that pediatric dentists and orthodontists receive proper education and clinical training in TMD diagnosis and management. This study compared the extent of exposure to TMD education among pediatric dentistry and orthodontics postgraduate programs.

An electronic survey was distributed among pediatric dentistry (N = 100) and orthodontics (N = 69) program directors investigating competency, type, and number of teaching modalities, faculty expertise, practice (i.e., screening, treatment, referral), and perception of TMD education in their respective programs. During the 2-month study period, four survey completion requests were sent out. Responses were compared between the two programs with chi-square tests and independent t-tests, as appropriate.

Among 47 responding programs (27.8% response rate, 51.4% pediatric dentistry, 48.6% orthodontics), significantly more hours of TMD instruction were provided to residents in orthodontics postgraduate programs compared to pediatric dentistry (11.4 ± 5.3 vs. 2.9 ± 3.2 h/year, p < 0.001). Programs offering multimodal instruction types (e.g., didactic teaching and clinical exposure) were more likely to screen (2.4 ± 1.0 vs. 1.2 ± 0.8, p = 0.017) and provide treatment (2.6 ± 1.0 vs. 1.4 ± 1.0, p = 0.002) for TMD compared to programs offering fewer educational modalities. Orthodontics program directors reported higher perceived importance in teaching residents about the screening, diagnosis, and management of TMD in pediatric patients (90.2 ± 13.1 vs. 72.1 ± 21.4 on a 0-100 numerical scale, p = 0.005).

Our findings revealed significant differences in TMD education among pediatric dentistry and orthodontics postgraduate programs. These findings emphasize the need for increased TMD education in relevant postgraduate programs to address the rising prevalence of TMD among children and adolescents.