Awareness of Temporomandibular Joint Involvement in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients by Physicians Dealing with Rheumatology

The aim of this study is to evaluate the attitudes and awareness of physicians dealing with rheumatology about temporomandibular joint (TMJ) involvement while evaluating rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with the TMJ questionnaire we created. For this purpose, an online TMJ evaluation questionnaire consisting of 10 questions was prepared and completed by the physicians via the Google Forms application. Among those who participated in the survey; the percentage of correct answers to the question of whether the TMJ joint is a synovial joint was 95.5%. While the rate of those who correctly knew that more than half of the RA patients had TMJ involvement remained at 35.5%, the rate of those who correctly identified that RA rarely affected the first TMJ was 75.5%. The rate of those who knew that TMJ involvement is frequently bilateral in RA was 62.7%. The number of participants who answered the question of what the clinical findings are in TMJ involvement correctly was over 60%. When asked about radiological findings in TMJ involvement in RA, more than 75% of the participants expected joint space narrowing, erosion, and mandibular destruction. On the other hand, the number of physicians who expected radiological findings such as ostephitis and sclerosis as radiological findings was below 40%. While the number of physicians who performed TMJ inquiries and examinations in RA patients was only 15.5%, if there was a TMJ complaint, this rate increased to 80%. The number of participants using objective tests for the evaluation of TMJ was below 30%. Also, 85.5% of the participants ignored TMJ involvement in RA. In conclusion, our study showed that physicians dealing with rheumatology have low awareness of TMJ involvement in RA.