Evaluation of Serum Levels of Selenium, Magnesium, Sodium, Zinc, and Copper in Patients with Temporomandibular Joint Disorders

Serum levels of micronutrients change when most inflammations and infections occur. We aimed to evaluate serum levels of selenium (Se), magnesium (Mg), sodium (Na), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu) in patients with temporomandibular joint disorders and compare them with healthy control group.
In this case-control study, 60 participants were selected from among patients who were referred to School of Dentistry of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran, due to temporomandibular joint disorders. All the participants were examined by a prosthodontist, who was expert in occlusion. Twenty patients with muscular disorder, 20 patients with articular disorder (disc dislocation with reduction), 20 patients with inflammatory disorder, as well as 20 healthy controls were chosen. Se, Mg, Na, Zn, and Cu levels were assessed using flame atomic absorption spectrometry in all the participants. To analyse the data, Kruskal–Wallis, Chi-squared, and Fisher’s Exact tests were run (P Mean age of the participants was 31.7±9.31 years. Overall, 25 (31.6%) cases were male and 54 (68.4%) were female. Serum levels of zinc, magnesium, sodium, copper, and selenium in the patients with muscular disorder were 67.68, 1.94, 140.05, 122.74, and 122.08, while these values were 65, 1.94, 138.95, 116.94, and 110.79 in the patients with articular disorder, 65.65, 1.84, 136.32, 120.96, and 105.75 in the patients with inflammatory disorder, and 62.4, 1.8, 135.4, 138.51 and 110.58 in the control group, respectively.
The mean serum level of sodium in the muscular group was significantly higher in comparison with those in the osteoarthritis and control groups. Furthermore, this value was significantly higher in the articular disorder (disc dislocation with reduction)group than the control group.