ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SLEEP BRUXISM, DENTAL WEAR AND STRESS IN DENTISTS AND LAYPEOPLE

C. Preite¹, L. Borgia² and A. Visentin¹

¹ Postgraduate School of Orthodontics, University of Ferrara, Italy;
² Vice-president, National Ethical Committee, Republic of San Marino.

Correspondence to:
Carlotta Preite, DDS,
Postgraduate School of Orthodontics,
University of Ferrara,
Via Luigi Borsari 46,
44121 Ferrara, Italy.
e-mail: carlottapreite97@gmail.com

Received: 04 February 2020 Accepted: 11 March 2020Biolife-Publisher.it © 2020

ISSN: 2038-4106 This publication and/or article is for individual use only and may not be further reproduced without written permission from the copyright holder. Unauthorized reproduction may result in financial and other penalties. Disclosure: All authors report no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.

ABSTRACT

To evaluate the association between sleep bruxism (SB), diagnosed through an objective method, and psychological factors, dental wear and different occlusal variables in a sample of dentists concerning a control group composed of laypeople. The study was conducted on 41 healthy subjects, 22 dentists and 19 laypeople. SB was diagnosed through Bruxoff® (OT Biolettronica, Turin, Italy), and subjects with an SB index superior to 4 were considered bruxers. Questionnaires were submitted the day after the recording with Bruxoff®, to evaluate the existence of coping strategies and anxious traits. Moreover, in order to analyse the relationship between dental wear, dental occlusion and SB, digital scans of the arches were taken for each patient and, through a specific 3D software (3D viewer), the digital models were studied in the three dimensions, and the presence of dental wear was assessed. The data obtained were confronted using the Student’s t-test and Pearson’s chi-squared test. The Student’s t-test showed no statistically significant differences between the SB index of the two groups (p=0.28). The questionnaire’s score resulted in subjects with higher scores having a higher mean number of SB episodes, although this difference was not statistically significant. Likewise, the relation between the SB index and the severity of dental wear and occlusion reported a high p-value. No correlation was found between SB and psychological factors, dental wear and some occlusal variables. Also, the two analysed groups established no statistical differences regarding the SB index.

KEYWORDS: Sleep bruxism, Bruxoff device, anxiety, dental wear