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Carlsson G, Magnusson T et al. J Oral Rehabil 2004; 31: 511–517

There is still much controversy among clinicians regarding the need and demand for treatment of TMD. This study aimed to find predictors of adult TMD treatment demand from signs and symptoms in childhood. The researchers identified a cohort of 135 subjects at age 15 yrs; at age 25, 103 completed a questionnaire and 84 were clinically examined with respect to TMD; at age 35, respective figures were 114 and 100. Bivariate analysis was used to identify possible prediction variables, and these were entered into multivariate logistic regression analysis.

At the 20 yr follow-up, 21 subjects were found to have received TMD treatment. At 20 yrs, baseline differences between treated and untreated subjects were found for TMJ clicking, jaw fatigue, difficult mouth opening, reported TMD symptoms, nocturnal bruxism, nocturnal clenching of teeth, and bruxism and/or nailbiting. Logistic regression identified reported nocturnal bruxism as the only significant predictor at all 3 examinations. The authors comment that absence of this sign was associated with a low risk of future demand for TMD treatment.