although the approach recommended in this chapter is the psychological and psychosocial assessment with standardized self-report questionnaires be routinely included when a pain history is gathered from TMD patients, some dentists may prefer a more informal initial approach. the following guidelines are offered to assist these clinician in the determining whether or not to pursue a more detailed psychological and psychosocial assessment. table 13-1 offers some specific questions clinicians may ask such patients.
the following are clinical indications for conducting psychological and psychosocial evaluation of TMD patients.