PAINFUL TEMPOROMANDIBULAR DISORDERS ARE AN URGENT HEALTHCARE PROBLEM
Despite nearly a century of research on diseases affecting the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), masticatory muscles and associated structures, this problem still remains open. Pain syndrome caused by TMJ diseases ranks first in terms of prevalence among non-odontogenic pain syn-dromes in the maxillofacial region and leads to a signifi-cant deterioration in the quality of life of patients. The high prevalence of these diseases in female patients and the presence of a number of factors of a somatic, psycho-logical and social nature, contributing to such a high prevalence, indicate the need for more close attention of researchers to these aspects, which can become a way to develop new effective methods for the diagnosis and treatment of TMJ diseases in this category of patients. A review of scientific literature was carried out in order to identify topical scientific issues related to the study, di-agnosis and treatment of TMJ diseases.