The following is a summary of “Head and Neck Pain Drawing Area Correlates With Higher Psychosocial Burden But Not With Joint Dysfunction in Temporomandibular Disorders: A Cross-Sectional Study,” published in the June 2023 issue of The Journal of Pain by Christopher et al.

Head and neck pain diagrams have been incorporated into the gold standard for diagnosing temporomandibular disorders (TMD). The researchers sought to characterize the spatial extent of pain in TMD patients and examine its relationship to additional clinical findings. A cross-sectional study used the DC/TMD to diagnose 90 patients (median age = 38 years; n women = 68). Magnetic resonance imaging either confirmed or refuted intra-articular disorders. 

The patients shaded every bothersome area on a face sketch’s left and right sides. The drawings were covered with a grid template, and each region containing markings was rated as excruciating. Using Spearman correlation, Mann-Whitney-U, and chi-square tests, the correlation between the calculated area and psychosocial variables (DC/TMD axis II) and the influence of pain lateralization were investigated. The pain affected all facial regions but was concentrated in the temporomandibular joint and masseter origin regions. 39% of patients reported solely unilateral pain, which was associated with structural TMJ findings in 77% of cases. 

Except for the functional limitation of the jaw, individuals with bilateral pain and greater spatial spread of pests had substantially higher scores on all axis II variables. Drawings of head and neck symptoms can aid in the stratification of TMD patients. Greater pain intensity and lateralization are related to elevated levels of emotional distress, pain chronicity, and somatization but not functional impairment. The pain reported unilaterally is associated with an increase in intra-articular disorders.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1526590023000184