Prevalência da disfunção temporomandibular em idosos: revisão de literatura

Abstract

This Review of the Literature aimed to investigate the prevalence of TMD in the elderly. The search was done by PubMed database, between January and May 2016, whith the following descriptors: Tempomandibular Joint Disorders; Temporomandibular Joint; Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction Syndrome; Aged; Frail Elderly; Age Groups; Geriatric Dentistry; Epidemiology, whith the inclusion criteria that aimed to evalute the prevalenceof TMD in the elderly. Exclusion criteria were clinical case studies or literature review, theses, monographs, abstracts presented at events, duplicate articles evaluating other orofacial pain and TMD in the elderly with neurological diseases, rheumatologic diseases, and emotional or phychological problems. Seventeen studies were selected, four of wich consisted of longitudinal studies, eight assessed TMD sings and symptoms two TMD symptoms, and seven reported the prevalence of TMD in the elderly Samples ranged from 44 to 8,619 and there was a higher prevalence of TMD in females. Studies have shown that the prevalence of TMD in the elderly is low and that the signs and symptoms decrease with increasing age. However, heterogeneity of samples, the diversified metodology, lack of protocol for evaluation of TMD sings and symptoms and the interpretation of these results. It was conclued that further studies should be performed based on evidence with standardized and validated diagnostic criteria to investigate the presence of such disordes during the tratament of elderly patients.