NOVEL INSTRUMENT FOR TEMPOROMANDIBULAR DISORDER ASSESSMENT
Temporomandibular joint disorders, diagnosis, epidemiology, health assessment, methods
The incidence and prevalence of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) is a public health issue, and it is necessary to develop public policies for the diagnosis, evaluation and treatment of these conditions for Brazilian people. The aim of this study is to create an easy to apply and validate TMD diagnostic's instrument, allowing epidemiological surveys on TMD field. The instrument will be divided in to two parts: a questionnaire and a clinical protocol. The questionnaire will consist of questions based on pre-existing published questionnaires, and the clinical protocol will be based on the Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Dysfunction (DC / TMD), highlighting the evaluation of temporal and masseter muscles and the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). The instrument was submitted to experts’ evaluation, using a Delphi process. Twenty-five experts have returned and their contributions is presented as partial results.