Relationship between Pain-induced Temporomandibular Joint Pain According to Cell Phone Use Frequency

Background/Objectives: The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the use of mobile phone is related to the pain of the jaw joints.

Method/Statistical Analysis:This study was designed as a cross-sectional survey. The purpose of this study was to explain the research objectives of 304 university students in Busan and the data was collected using the convenience sampling method. Of the total 304 subjects, 300 were included from the questionnaire, except for four who were inappropriate to use the data.

Findings: The general characteristics of the subjects were 227 females (75.7%) and 73 males (24.3%) among the 300 respondents. In the index of pain of the joint with the average number of calls per day, 44 people (14.7%) for less than 1 time, 36 people (12%) for 1 to 2 times, 100 (33.3%) for 3 to 4 times, 106 (35.3%) for 4 to 5 times, 14 people (4.7%) for more than 5 times, and analyzed the pain index according to the average number of calls per day showed a significant difference in pain index for ‘hard food’ (p = 0.019) and ‘discomfort during closing’ (p = 0.037). Jaw joint pain index was significantly different between male and female, 4.62 points and 4.35 points, respectively (p = 0.001). However, there was no significant difference from other joint pain symptoms.

Improvements/Applications: It was difficult to generalize the results to all university students because the study was limited to university students in some universities in Busan area. In addition, it is necessary to consider other factors of pain in the joint, and further study on cell phone and joint pain through the diversification of the sample area and the increase in the number of samples is considered. However, it is hoped that it can contribute as a basic data for more systematic epidemiological studies for all citizens in the future.