Temporomandibular disorders is associated with genetic factors: A review

Pain is the most leading cause of visits to physicians and dentists. It is also a common symptom of diseases that can significantly undermine the quality of life and physical activities. This study aimed to review the existing literature for the causes of  temporomandibular disorders (TMD) from the genetic point of view.

Four international scientific databases including Google Scholar, Biomed Central, PubMed, and ProQuest plus two Iranian databases including Magiran and SID. Then all articles published between 1980 and 2019 were searched using the following keywords: facial pain, genetic factors and temporomandibular disorders (TMDs). A total of 900 articles were found that 36 were review articles.

Our review shows that genetic factors have an impact on the incidence and pathology of TMDs These factors include TSPAN9 polymorphism and the COMT gene.

There is growing evidence indicating that genetic factors play a key role in the pathology of temporomandibular disorders, however, the underlying mechanism of pain is still largely unknown