Coronal Restorations and Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) Dysfunction: A Survey Among General Practitioners of the Town of Abidjan

The paper surveyed the knowledge of general practitioners to coronal restorations and temporomandibular dysfunction. The specific aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge and therapeutic approaches of the general practitioners in terms of restoring occlusion, aesthetics and function after restorative treatments in other to make recommendations to prevent potential dysfunction of the temporomandibular joint.

A cross sectional descriptive survey was used. It was carried out on 86 dentists out of the entire population size of 152 dentists practicing within Abidjan’s center municipality, randomly selected from the database provided by the National College of Dental Surgeons of Ivory Coast. A structured questionnaire was administered to collect data, which was subsequently collated and analysed.

The majority of the practitioners (95.4%) knew how to diagnose TMJ dysfunction. The etiological factors were stress for 55.2% of the practitioners and amalgam overhang for 49.4% of them. The precautions used to avoid TMJ disorders consisted of good control of the occlusion after having performed a restoration (55%) and taking into account the occlusal morphology (32%) at the time of shaping. Fifty-four percent of the practitioners systematically reevaluated the restorations undertaken.

Impairment of occlusion results in improper muscular responses and leads to changes in pressure at the level of the temporomandibular joint. This study revealed that the general practitioners of the town of Abidjan have a good level of knowledge of the consequences of poorly carried out restorations on the initiation of masticatory apparatus disorders.