TEMPOROMANDIBULAR DISORDERS IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS - RELIABILITYOF A QUESTIONNAIRE, CLINICAL EXAMINATION, AND DIAGNOSIS

Recently developed Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (RDC/TMD) have been shown to be reliable for diagnosing and assessing TMD in U.S. and Swedish adult populations; however, Jew stud ies have focused on clinical examination methods and diagnostic criter ia for use with children and adolescents. The present study used a sam ple of 50 Swedish children and adolescents, aged 12 to 18 years, to ev aluate usefulness and reliability of existing and specially developed measures and methods for assessing and diagnosing TMD in youth. Subjec ts underwent repeated clinical exams by two calibrated examiners to as sess signs and symptoms per the RDC/TMD, and they responded to a speci ally developed self-administered questionnaire thar addressed location and frequency of TMD-related pain and symptoms, jaw function, effect of pain on daily activities, and use of Pain medications. Interexamine r and intraexaminer reliability tons assessed for clinical examination , questionnaire items, and diagnosis. Reliability values ranged from a cceptable to excellent for the RDC/TMD clinical exam and questionnaire , and fi om good to excellent reliability for measuring virtually all modified clinical parameters of TMD assessed in these young patients.