Clinical presentations and co-morbid factors of patients with myofascial pain or myalgia of masticatory muscles

BACKGROUND an‎d AIM: This study was aimed to investigate the clinical presentations and frequencies of co-morbid factors in patients with myofascial pain or myalgia of masticatory muscles. METHODS: In this retrospective study, the data were obtained from the documents of the patients with myalgia or myofascial pain of the masticatory muscles who were conceded to Kerman Orofacial Pain Clinic, Kerman, Iran. Their clinical presentations and frequencies of possible related comorbid factors were evaluated. The chi-square test, Fisher’s exact test, and t-test were used for comparing the distribution of variables. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's honestly significant difference (HSD) test were also used for comparisons between groups. A P-value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Patients with masticatory muscle myalgia or myofascial pain consisted of 296 individuals, 258 women (87.7%) and 38 men (12.3%) with an average age of 34.00 ± 11.75 years (range: 15-75 years). Temporomandibular disorder (TMD) occurred in 259 (87.5%) patients and 262 (88.5%) subjects had headache. A total of 178 individuals (60.1%) reported pain in three parts of the body and 155 subjects (52.4%) had insomnia. Bruxism, other oral para-functional habits, and poor head and neck postures were found in 156 (52.7%), 167 (56.4%), and 80 (27.0%) subjects, respectively. The frequency of moderate to severe depression and moderate anxiety was 22.0% of our study population. CONCLUSION: This study stated that the frequency of masticatory muscle pain (MMP) was high in patients with TMD, headache, and psychological disorders and accompanied with insomnia, oral parafunction, and bodily pain.