Depression and Related Clinical Factors in Adolescent Patients with Temporomandibular Disorder

Abstract Temporomandibular disorder (TMD) is a musculoskeletal disorder characterized by functional limitations and pain in the masticatory muscle and the temporomandibular joint. In adolescent, TMD can significantly impact mental health and lead to psychosocial disabilities. This study aims to investigate the correlation between the depression, as assessed by the Symptom-Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R) and clinical factors in adolescent patients with TMD. This study included a total of 185 adolescents (69 males, 116 females, mean age 15.15 ± 2.17) in Korea, who was diagnosed with TMD between November 2020 and May 2023. Patients were categorized into three age groups: 46 young adolescents aged 10–13, 78 middle adolescents aged 14–16, and 61 older adolescents aged 17–18. Clinical data were collected from the medical records at the patients’ initial visit. Depression of patients was evaluated with SCL-90-R. Depression of adolescent TMD patients exhibited strong correlation with age. In the adolescent TMD patients, depression scores were significantly associated with stressful conditions, sleep problems, dysfunction index, presence of tinnitus, craniomandibular index, history of trauma, and habitual irregular diet. In the generalized linear model, depression exhibited the most significant association with aging, followed by clenching habits, obsessive-compulsiveness, and somatization. In contrast, pain intensity and pain duration were not significantly related with depression in adolescent TMD patients. Also, osteoarthritis in panoramic image was not significantly associated with depression in adolescent TMD patients. The results suggest that clinicians can evaluate the depression state of adolescent TMD patients with concise clinical information, enhancing the management and treatment of this population.