Temporomandibular disorder (TMD) is associated with an increased prevalence of otologic complaints

Subjects. 200 consecutively selected temporomandibular disorder (TMD) patients referred for treatment to the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Ankara university comprised the 3 case groups. The control group was composed of 50 randomly selected asymptomatic, normal subjects referred to the same department for minor dentoalveolar surgery. The 200 case subjects were divided into 3 groups based on the diagnostic criteria established by Dworkin and LeResche,¹ as follows: group 1 was composed of 22 subjects with myofascial pain and dysfunction, group 2 was composed of 154 subjects with internal derangement of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), and group 3 was composed of 24 subjects with either myalgia or myofascial pain and dysfunction combined with internal derangement of the TMJ. Suspected Etiology. Cases for this study consisted of subjects with varying levels of TMD. Controls were randomly selected subjects in the same age range without a history of TMD and with no symptoms of TMD. The primary suspected underlying cause for otologic complaints for this study is TMD. Disease/Condition. The primary condition under study is subjective otologic complaints. Cases (TMD patients) and controls (healthy subjects) were questioned about otologic symptoms, including otalgia, tinnitus, vertigo, and loss of hearing. Main Results. Based on chi-squared tests of independence, TMD patients were significantly more likely to report specific otologic symptoms compared with healthy controls, although they were not more likely to report loss of hearing. However, no statistically significant differences in otologic complaints were found among the 3 subgroups of TMD patients. Compared with healthy control subjects, TMD subjects were 11.9 times more likely to report otalgia [95% confidence interval (CI): 4.0-33.1), 2.4 times more likely to report tinnitus (95% CI: 1.2-4.7), and 3.5 times more likely to report vertigo (95% CI: 1.5-8.1).