Personality traits are potentially associated with the presence of chronic temporomandibular joint pain in patients without effusion as determined by T-2 weighted magnetic resonance.

This study has important clinical implications for temporomandibular disorders practitioners, providing suggestions that symptoms in the TMJ area are not only related to a physical disorder. The possible existence of a psychologically modulated condition in patients who refer pain in the TMJ area without signs of effusion should be carefully taken into consideration.