Resumo

MEDEIROS, Suéllen Peixoto de; BATISTA, André Ulisses Dantas  e  FORTE, Franklin Delano Soares. Prevalence of temporomandibular dysfunction symptoms and oral parafunctional habits in university students. RGO, Rev. gaúch. odontol. (Online) [online]. 2011, vol.59, n.2, pp. 201-208. ISSN 1981-8637.

Objective This study assessed the prevalence of temporomandibular dysfunction symptoms and parafunctional habits in students from the Federal University of Paraíba health courses. Methods A questionnaire was administered to 347 undergraduate students in the first and last years of dentistry, medicine, physiotherapy, pharmacy and nursing courses. The data were analyzed descriptively and when possible, the statistical analysis was done by the chi-square test and Fisher's exact test, with significance set at 5%. Results Most individuals presented mild dysfunction (54.5%) and only 2.6% presented severe dysfunction. The most common parafunctional habits in females were holding the chin (36.31%) and sleeping on one side (32.27%). Most individuals with severe dysfunction (44.4%) were nursing students, older students (100%), students who reported having some habit (100%) and who reported being emotionally tense (88.9%); 30.6% of the individuals who reported habits also reported experiencing some degree of emotional tension. Conclusion Most of the studied individuals presented mild dysfunction. Need of treatment was associated with gender, course, course year, presence of habits and presence of emotional tension. The prevalence of parafunctional habits was high and the most common habit was to hold the chin. An association was found between the presence of habits and emotional tension

Palavras-chave : Habits; Prevalence; Temporomandibular joint disorders.