Proposal of an evaluation protocol of for craniomandibular disfunction ar the physiotherapy clinic of UNIMEP

Abstract

The objective of this study was to characterize patientes with craniomandibular disorder (CMD) who were treated at the physiotherapy clinic of the UNIMEP between august 1995 and august 1998. To overcome the dificulties that we encountered with non-standardized questions and assessement, a questionare for patient evaluation wea elaborated. A total of 43 patients were analizer in the study of which 88% were female, 68% were between 20 and 40 years old and 86@ were referred by dentists. The presence of postural alterations, primarily of the head and arms were found in all of the patients examined, with the most prevalent symptoms being muscular pains (50%), joint pain (10%) and headaches (9%). There was an increase in the number of patients evaluated for CMD each year indicating that within the multidisciplinary team that evaluated patients the value of the contribution of the physiotherapy increased with time.Standardization of the questions for the patient´s history significanty increased the ease of data collection and interpetation which produced, a more efficient characterization of each patient´s case.