Painful temporomandibular disorders in Confucian‐heritage cultures: Their inter‐relationship with bodily pain, psychological well‐being and distress

Abstract Background Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) are common and affect individuals negatively. Objectives This study investigated the inter‐relationship of painful TMDs with bodily pain, psychological well‐being and distress in young people from a Confucian‐heritage culture (CHC). Methods Adolescents/young adults were recruited from a polytechnic in Singapore. While the presence/severity of painful TMDs and bodily pain were established with the DC/TMD Pain Screener (TPS) and Maciel's Pain Inventory, psychological well‐being and distress were evaluated with the Scales of Psychological Well‐being‐18 (SPWB‐18) and Patient Health Questionnaire‐4 (PHQ‐4). Statistical explorations were conducted using chi‐square/Mann–Whitney U tests, Spearman's correlation and logistic regression analyses (α = .05). Results Among the 225 participants (mean age 20.1 ± 3.9 years) examined, 11.6% had painful TMDs and 68.9% experienced multisite bodily pain. Though painful TMDs were accompanied by a higher occurrence of multisite bodily pain, the overall/discrete number of bodily pain sites did not differ substantially between the ‘no TMD pain’ (NT) and ‘with TMD pain’ (WT) groups. Besides ear pain, differences in overall/discrete bodily pain scores were also insignificant. However, significant differences in environmental mastery, overall psychological distress, depression and anxiety subscale scores were discerned between the NT and WT groups. Psychological well‐being and distress were moderately and negatively correlated (r s = −.56). Multivariate analysis indicated that ear pain and psychological distress increased the prospect of painful TMDs. Conclusion The prevalence of multi‐site bodily pain was high in young people from CHCs irrespective of the painful TMDs’ presence of painful TMDs. Enhancing environmental mastery and relieving depression/anxiety may help manage TMD pain.