Dental patients who have been clinically diagnosed with insomnia, a common sleep disorder that can make it difficult to fall and stay asleep, may be more likely to develop temporomandibular disorders (TMD), according to a study recently published in BMC Oral Health.
Therefore, sleep evaluations may assist in identifying patients who may be at risk for TMD, the authors wrote.
“Individuals with insomnia exhibited a consistently higher incidence of TMD than those without,” wrote the authors, led by Heon-Young Kim of Ewha Womans University Medical Center in South Korea (BMC Oral Health, November 16, 2025, Vol. 25, 1786).
The study sought to examine the long-term link between clinically diagnosed insomnia and the risk of developing TMD using data from the Korean National Health Insurance Service. Researchers used baseline data from 2011 to 2014 and followed participants through 2019, they wrote.
Insomnia was identified using diagnostic codes and prescriptions for medications. The analysis included 358,475 adult patients age 20 and older with no prior insomnia or TMD diagnosis. Furthermore, participants were tracked from the index date until they developed TMD or reached the end of 2019.
During the follow-up period, 10,186 TMD cases occurred in the control group and 767 cases occurred in the insomnia group. Participants with insomnia showed a higher TMD incidence rate of 6.46 versus 4.48 per 1,000 person-years, they wrote.
After adjusting for factors, including demographics and lifestyle, insomnia still predicted a 36% higher TMD risk (hazard ratio [HR], 1.36; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.25 to 1.49). Additionally, Kaplan-Meier analysis showed a consistently higher cumulative TMD incidence in the insomnia group (p < 0.001).
The study, however, had limitations. Its reliance on insurance claims data meant that insomnia and TMD could not be measured with standardized tools or detailed clinical information, the authors added.
“These findings underscore the importance of paying clinical attention to sleep-related complaints in dental and oral and maxillofacial care,” Kim and colleagues concluded.
