Abstract: PURPOSE: To investigate the prevalence of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) in young men who participated in the physical examination of Qingzhou conscription, and to observe the effects of two different treatments for TMD. METHODS: The oral medical history information of 690 male youth who participated in the conscription physical examination for enlisted citizens in Qingzhou city in the autumn of 2021 and the spring of 2022 was collected. The temporomandibular joint functions were examined, and the prevalence of TMD and the incidence rates of various symptoms were calculated. Among them, totally 85 patients with TMD were selected as the research subjects and randomly divided into group A(n=42) and group B(n=43). Group A was treated with oral and maxillofacial system functional exercises, while group B was treated with full-arch anatomical occlusal splints. The therapeutic effects of TMD were evaluated after 3 months of treatment, and the recurrence of patients was observed after 12 months. The data were statistically analyzed using SPSS 20.0 software package. RESULTS: A total of 120 TMD patients were identified in 690 youths with a prevalence rate of 17.39%, with 61 cases (18.05%) among 338 young men surveyed in the fall of 2021 and 59 cases (16.76%) among 352 young men surveyed in the spring of 2022. There was no significant difference in TMD prevalence between the two investigations (P>0.05). In addition, among the 690 youths, the incidence of clicking was the highest (15.65%), followed by mandibular dyskinesia (7.25%) and pain (1.30%). A few of the 120 TMD patients had a past medical history, mainly manifested as mandibular dyskinesia and clicking. After 3 months, the symptoms of TMD patients in group A were significantly improved after functional exercise, and there was no recurrence after 12 months. Among the 43 TMD patients in group B, 23 cases were completely cured, 9 cases were improved, but 4 cases recurred after 12 months. CONCLUSIONS: There is a high prevalence rate of TMD among young male recruits, most of them are mild and mainly characterized by clicking. After conservative treatment through functional exercises, patients with TMD can be cured and meet the enlistment standards, and thus should be retained.

Key words: Temporomandibular disorder, Conscription candidate, Prevalence rate, Conservative treatment