Análise termográfica infravermelha de pacientes com disfunção temporomandibular

Abstract

Temporomandibular Dysfunction (TMD) refers to a set of orofacial pain; joint sounds; limited movement or jaw deviation; masticatory difficulty; and other functions of the stomatognathic system that are muscle-dependent altered. The objective of this study was to analyze, through infrared thermography, the thermographic aspect of TMD patients. This was a cross-sectional study carried out at the Department of Dentistry of the State University of Paraíba (UEPB), with the approval of the Research Ethics Committee (UEPB) under the following CAAE: 73417017.2.0000.5187. After diagnosis by the RDC/TMD (Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders) and Fonseca's anamnestic questionnaire, patients were invited to participate in the study, with a convenience sample of 62 patients, according to the presence of TMD: TMD Group (n = 35): Patients with muscular or mixed TMD (with muscle and joint diagnosis) and Control Group (n = 27): Patients not diagnosed with TMD. Following the clinical examination, the patients received guidelines for thermographic images in a standard right and left lateral pattern, marked by a facial mask. The regions of interest were the anterior and temporal masseter and TMJ muscles, on both sides. The images were analyzed in ROIs of similar size and location by means of Flir Tools software and correlated with the intensity of pain upon palpation. Inferential and comparative statistical analysis used the t test for independent samples, the ANOVA intergroup test and the Sperman correlation test, with a significance level of 5%. Both TMD and non-TMD patients are mean weighted averages and dimensional differences (p> 0.05) in all ROIs analyzed, being a region of the previous temporal with the highest average between ROIs. In the analysis of lateral symmetry, observed a greater asymmetry was not observed the average of patients with TMD, when correlated the temperature with the intensity of the pain to the palpation, the purely aerial region of ATMândia was observed (p = 0.011). Patients with and without TMD compared the temperature to the TMD pattern.