The Frequency of Temporomandibular Disorder (TMD) in Boxers, With Membership Record in National Team of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Background: Facial trauma is a common sport-related injury and risk of this injury in contact sports is greater than non-contact sports. Facial trauma has been suggested as a possible etiologic factor of temporomandibular disorder (TMD). Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency of TMD and its clinical manifestation in boxers of Islamic Republic of Iran national team. Materials and Methods: In this study, thirty-two male players with average age of 23.75 ± 2.21 who were playing boxing more than 6 years were evaluated regarding TMD. After taking the history, a clinical examination was performed for each athlete. The presence of at least a sign or symptom was considered as TMD diagnosis. Data were collected and presented as descriptive findings. Results: Of 32 boxers, 28.1% (9 cases) had TMD and 71.9% (23 cases) were healthy. The most common symptom was ante-auricular pain (25%) followed by neck pain (21.87%) right ante-auricular tenderness (9.37%) muscle tenderness (9.37%), neck tenderness (9.37%) and headache (3.12%). The uppermost sign was right joint click (25%) followed by left joint click (12.5%) and jaw deviation during mouth opening (12.5%).average age of (25 ± 2 years) and boxing record (10.44 ± 2.29 years) of athletes with TMD were higher than average age of (23.26 ± 2.4 years) and boxing record (7.26 ± 1.76 years) of athletes without TMD. Conclusions: This study showed that the prevalence of various sign and symptoms of TMD is relatively high in boxers which could result from boxing-related facial trauma.