Ojo Seyi, Sangalli Linda, Sawicki Caroline M
Adams School of Dentistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
College of Dental Medicine-Illinois, Midwestern University, Downers Grove, Illinois, USA.
J Dent Educ. 2025 Apr 22:e13906. doi: 10.1002/jdd.13906.
The increasing prevalence of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) amongst youth highlights the importance of ensuring that pediatric dentists and orthodontists receive proper education and clinical training in TMD diagnosis and management. This study compared the extent of exposure to TMD education among pediatric dentistry and orthodontics postgraduate programs.
An electronic survey was distributed among pediatric dentistry (N = 100) and orthodontics (N = 69) program directors investigating competency, type, and number of teaching modalities, faculty expertise, practice (i.e., screening, treatment, referral), and perception of TMD education in their respective programs. During the 2-month study period, four survey completion requests were sent out. Responses were compared between the two programs with chi-square tests and independent t-tests, as appropriate.
Among 47 responding programs (27.8% response rate, 51.4% pediatric dentistry, 48.6% orthodontics), significantly more hours of TMD instruction were provided to residents in orthodontics postgraduate programs compared to pediatric dentistry (11.4 ± 5.3 vs. 2.9 ± 3.2 h/year, p < 0.001). Programs offering multimodal instruction types (e.g., didactic teaching and clinical exposure) were more likely to screen (2.4 ± 1.0 vs. 1.2 ± 0.8, p = 0.017) and provide treatment (2.6 ± 1.0 vs. 1.4 ± 1.0, p = 0.002) for TMD compared to programs offering fewer educational modalities. Orthodontics program directors reported higher perceived importance in teaching residents about the screening, diagnosis, and management of TMD in pediatric patients (90.2 ± 13.1 vs. 72.1 ± 21.4 on a 0-100 numerical scale, p = 0.005).
Our findings revealed significant differences in TMD education among pediatric dentistry and orthodontics postgraduate programs. These findings emphasize the need for increased TMD education in relevant postgraduate programs to address the rising prevalence of TMD among children and adolescents.
颞下颌关节紊乱病（TMD）在青少年中的患病率不断上升，这凸显了确保儿科牙医和正畸医生接受TMD诊断和管理方面的适当教育和临床培训的重要性。本研究比较了儿科牙科和正畸研究生课程中TMD教育的接触程度。
向儿科牙科（N = 100）和正畸（N = 69）项目主任进行电子调查，调查各自课程中的能力、教学方式的类型和数量、教师专业知识、实践（即筛查、治疗、转诊）以及对TMD教育的认知。在为期2个月的研究期间，发出了4次调查完成请求。根据情况，使用卡方检验和独立t检验对两个项目的回复进行比较。
在47个回复的项目中（回复率为27.8%，儿科牙科占51.4%，正畸占48.6%），与儿科牙科相比，正畸研究生课程向住院医师提供的TMD教学时间明显更多（11.4±5.3小时/年对2.9±3.2小时/年，p < 0.001）。与提供较少教育方式的项目相比，提供多模式教学类型（如理论教学和临床接触）的项目更有可能对TMD进行筛查（2.4±1.0对1.2±0.8，p = 0.017）和提供治疗（2.6±1.0对1.4±1.0，p = 0.002）。正畸项目主任报告称，在教授住院医师关于儿科患者TMD的筛查、诊断和管理方面，他们认为的重要性更高（在0 - 100数字量表上为90.2±13.1对72.1±21.4，p = 0.005）。
我们的研究结果揭示了儿科牙科和正畸研究生课程在TMD教育方面存在显著差异。这些发现强调了在相关研究生课程中增加TMD教育的必要性，以应对儿童和青少年中TMD患病率不断上升的问题。
