The True-Positive Rate of a Screening Questionnaire for Temporomandib-ular Disorders

Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) occur at an incidence of 5–12% in the general population. We aimed to investigate the rate of true-positives for a screening questionnaire for TMD (SQ-TMD) and differences in the characteristics between the true-positive and false-negative groups. Materials and

Seventy-six individuals (16 men, 60 women; mean age, 41.1 ± 16.5 years) were selected from pa-tients with TMD who had visited the Temporomandibular Joint Clinic at Tokyo Medical and Dental University. The patients were assessed using a questionnaire that contained items on TMD screening (SQ-TMD); pain intensity (at rest, maximum mouth-opening, and chewing), as assessed using the visual analog scale (VAS); and TMD-related limitations of daily func-tion (LDF-TMD). A logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the factors potentially influencing the true-positive rate.

Of the 76 subjects, 62 (81.6%) were true-positive for the questionnaire based on the SQ-TMD scores. The mean VAS score for maximum mouth-opening and chewing and the mean LDF-TMD score were significantly greater in the true-positive group than those in the false-negative group. The results of the logistic regression analysis showed that only the VAS score for chewing was a statistically significant factor (P < 0.05).

The true-positive rate of TMD using SQ-TMD was very high. The results indicate that SQ-TMD can be used to screen TMD in patients with moderate or severe pain and difficulty in living a healthy daily life.