Young people with jaw pain want more support during digital treatment
Dental problems become more common during adolescence and early adulthood and are likely to persist later in life if left untreated. It is therefore important that the condition is identified and treated at an early stage.
Digital self-care for jaw pain is proving to be demanding for young people and difficult to implement. Future treatment programmes therefore need to be further developed to better meet young people’s circumstances and needs, according to new research from Malmö University.
“Young people often feel pressure to be good at things, while also lacking confidence in their own abilities. They therefore seek support and reassurance from dental care services,” says Tessa Bijelic, who recently completed her PhD at the Faculty of Odontology.
Pain can affect everyday life
People across all age brackets suffer from various jaw problems, known as temporomandibular dysfunction (TMD). The symptoms manifest as pain in the face and jaws, headaches and the jaw getting stuck or locked; these often affect daily life and well-being.
“Such symptoms increase during adolescence and early adulthood and are likely to persist later in life if left untreated. It is therefore important that the condition is identified and treated at an early stage,” she says.
Today, so-called self-management therapy is recommended as the first-line treatment for these problems. The idea is that patients themselves should be given the tools to manage their pain through, for example, knowledge about the condition, jaw exercises, relaxation techniques and behavioural strategies.
In her thesis, Bijelic has examined in detail whether there is evidence to support this treatment for TMD and investigated how well teenagers adhere to and experience a digital version of a self-care programme.
The results of the first sub-study showed that the treatment has some scientific support for adult patients. However, knowledge of the treatment’s effectiveness in children and adolescents remains very limited.
In the thesis’s clinical study, adolescents were then given treatment either via an internet-based self-management programme or a mouthguard. The results were clear: the teenagers rarely completed the digital treatment, whilst the mouthguard produced better results in terms of reducing pain intensity and the extent to which the pain affected their daily lives. The adolescents also proved to be more satisfied with, and had greater confidence in, treatment with a mouthguard.
However, when Bijelic interviewed the young participants about the internet-based programme in the final sub-study, a more complex picture emerged. Many saw the treatment as an opportunity to experience less pain and a better quality of life but found self-management to be demanding and challenging. Several therefore called for more support and reassurance from dental care staff.
“The responses were not entirely clear-cut either. Despite the difficulties described, some young people reported that the digital self-management programme had given them a better understanding of various triggers and behavioural patterns associated with their jaw problems.
Digital solutions need to be developed
Overall, the thesis shows that self-management is an important part of TMD treatment, but also that future digital self-management programmes need to be developed to better meet young people’s circumstances, needs and preferences. The aim is to create treatments that feel relevant, feasible and meaningful to young.
“Access to treatment and the treatment itself are not enough to achieve good results. We need to broaden our perspective and take into account factors such as expectations, motivation, credibility and receptiveness among young patients,” says Bijelic.
