Objective: To investigate the states of chronic symptoms of other parts of the body concomitant with temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain.
Methods: Fifty-one patients with TMJ pain and thirty-one control subjects without TMJ symptoms were chosen randomly. The TMJ symptoms and chronic symptoms of other regions were investigated at the base line. The TMJ pain patients were investigated again half year after treatment. Between-symptom correlations were analyzed using linear regression and Chi-squared analysis method (alpha = 0.05).
Results: The chronic symptoms related to the TMJ pain at the base line were headache, back pain, numbness of hand, neck and shoulder pain, insomnia, dizziness, reduced hearing ability, eye pain and fatigue (P < 0.05). The incidences of the symptoms of patients were higher than those of the control subjects (P < 0.01). Half year later, the headache, neck and shoulder pain and fatigue were the symptoms improved with the TMJ pain treatment (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: The symptoms of adjacent regions of orofacial area such as neck and shoulder pain and headache are the main concomitant symptoms of the TMJ pain, and these symptoms may be improved by the treatment of TMJ.