Psychological distress and the belief that oral behaviours put a strain on the masticatory system in relation to the self-report of awake bruxism: Four scenarios

The reports of specific waking-state oral behaviours, including awake bruxism activities, and psychological distress have a dose-response relationship: A retrospective medical record study

OBJECTIVE

To investigate if there are dose-response relationships between self-reported waking-state oral behaviours, including awake bruxism, and three indicators of psychological distress (depression, anxiety, stress).

METHODS

The study sample consisted of 1,886 patients with function-dependent TMD pain. Relationships between six non-functional and six functional waking-state oral behaviours, scored on a 5-point ordinal scale, and the psychological factors were investigated using ordinal logistic regression.

RESULTS

Mean age was 42.4 (±15.3) years, 78.7% being female. The odds of reporting the higher categories of non-functional oral behaviours depended on the severity of depression, anxiety, and stress. Most OR coefficients followed a quadratic dose-response distribution, the others increased linearly as the severity of the psychological scales increased. Almost no such associations were found with normal jaw function behaviours.

CONCLUSION

Within the limitations of this study, it may be concluded that non-functional waking-state oral behaviours, including awake bruxism, and psychological distress have a dose-response relationship, with higher levels of distress being associated with higher reports of oral behaviours.

Awake bruxism behaviors frequency in a group of healthy young adults with different psychological scores

OBJECTIVE

To assess the frequency of awake bruxism (AB) behaviors in a group of undergraduate dentistry students and correlate it with the status of anxiety and depression.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The frequency of five oral behaviors (i.e., relaxed jaw muscle, teeth contact, mandible bracing, teeth clenching, teeth grinding) was evaluated using a smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) approach. The anxiety and depression status was investigated with the four-item patient health questionnaire for anxiety and depression (PHQ-4). ANOVA with Tukey post-hoc test was used to assess the difference in frequency of AB behaviors among the four PHQ-4 groups.

RESULTS

Among the four groups, there was a statistically significant difference in the frequency of relaxed jaw muscle, teeth contact, mandible bracing, and teeth clenching, but not for teeth grinding.

CONCLUSION

Based on this cross-sectional study's findings, psyche seems to have a determinant impact on AB behaviors, which is significantly higher in individuals with anxiety and depression traits.

Inflammatory Markers and Sleep Architecture in Sleep Bruxism-A Case-Control Study

Background: Sleep bruxism (SB) is a common sleep-related movement behavior with a multifaceted etiology and a deficiently understood pathophysiology. A recent hypothesis suggests a link between SB and systemic inflammation. The scope of the study was to determine whether bruxers have altered sleep structure and different levels of inflammatory parameters compared to nonbruxers. Methods: A total of 83 adults underwent full-night polysomnography. The polysomnograms were evaluated using the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) guidelines. Then, the blood samples were obtained from the participants by venipuncture and the analyses were performed. The study group was divided based on bruxism episode index (BEI) into two groups: BEI ≤ 4 and BEI > 4. Results: In comparison with nonbruxers, the oxygen desaturation index (ODI) was significantly higher in severe bruxers (7.5 ± 11.08 vs. 3.33 ± 5.75, p < 0.005), as well as the arousal parameters (7.77 ± 4.68 vs. 4.03 ± 2.97, p < 0.001), and the mean oxygen desaturation (3.49 ± 0.69 vs. 3.01 ± 0.67, p < 0.05). Moreover, the differences in sleep architecture and deprivation of the deep sleep phase were observed, the non-REM sleep stage 3 was significantly shorter in severe bruxers (p < 0.03). Differences were also noted in non-REM sleep stage 1 and REM sleep phase. In the investigated group, there were no statistical differences in inflammatory cytokines levels between bruxers and nonbruxers. Conclusions: Sleep bruxism is associated with sleep structure alterations and may be associated with deep sleep phase deprivation. The inflammatory markers are not linearly correlated with the severity of sleep bruxism expressed as BEI.