Incidents of symptomatic temporomandibular (TM) joint disorders in female population with missing permanent first...

In the literatures, the relationship between missing teeth or malocclusion and the symptoms of temporomandibular joint disorder such as frequent headaches, earaches, sinus pain, and jaw pain, has been documented. However, there were no specific details as to which teeth were missing to cause these symptoms. In this project the relationship between missing first molars in adult female subjects to the previously mentioned symptoms was studied using one group of 65 subjects with missing one, two, three, or four first molars and a control group of 67 subjects with no missing first molars. The study revealed a significant relationship of missing first molar(s) and the occurrence of headaches, earaches, sinus pain, and jaw pain.