10-YEAR FOLLOW-UP-STUDY OF PERSONALITY-TRAITS IN ADULTS WITH INTACT AND RESTORED DENTITIONS

The personality traits of 69 of a sample of 70 adolescents aged 25-26 years were re-examined after 10 years by means of a personality invent ory (KSP). A total of 11 subjects had intact dentitions (group I), whi le 18 subjects had had some fillings in their teeth since the first ex amination (group FI), and 40 subjects had restored dentitions from the starting-point (group F). The subjects with fillings 10 years ago had significantly higher scores In two of the anxiety variables - somatic anxiety and muscular tension and in the hostility variable, suspicion , than did those without the fillings. Together with the finding of a significant correlation between high scores for the clinical dysfuncti on index (DiII and DiIII) and the muscular tension scale, the results of this study support the hypothesis of a possible correlation between dental filling therapy, craniomandibular disorders (CMD) and personal ity. Frequent tooth clenching (once to twice a week or more) was signi ficantly more common among the subjects with fillings 10 years ago. Th e clenchers scored highest in the somatic anxiety, muscular tension an d suspicion scales and constituted a well-defined subgroup within the subjects of this study. There was a highly significant increase of mus cular tension among the clenchers during the 10-year examination perio d compared to the non-clenchers. However, the results of this study ar e not clear-cut. There was no statistically significant difference in personality between subjects with fillings after 10 years (group F + F i) and the group of subjects with intact teeth (group I). Hypothetical ly, this may indicate that the differences found in this study could b e due to how long the fillings had been in the mouth and at which age they were inserted. In order to test the hypothesis further and to est ablish the possible mechanisms behind this finding, more studies are n ecessary and especially more longitudinal comparative studies between subjects with intact and restored dentitions.