UNLOCKING THE MIND-BODY CONNECTION: BRUXISM VERSUS PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS

Bruxism is a non-functional activity of the dental-maxillary apparatus characterized by repetitive, unconscious movements, such as grinding or clenching teeth and/or thrusting the mandible. Nowadays, bruxism is no longer considered a disorder or a disease but a behavior that can sometimes have consequences for the structures of the dental-maxillary apparatus. Our study aimed to establish the prevalence of bruxism among Romanian adults and correlate the presence of this behaviour with psychological factors. The observational, analytical, and prospective study involved 271 volunteers, mostly women between 18 and 65 years. The study consisted of a questionnaire divided into three sections. The results were analyzed separately for sleep bruxism and awake bruxism using MedCalc Statistical Software version 19.1. The normality of the distribution of continuous data was analyzed with the Shapiro-Wilk test and expressed as the 25th, the median, and the 75th percentile. There were almost twice as many reported cases of awake bruxism among men compared to women (32.1% vs. 15.3%). Sleep bruxism and related symptoms were more prevalent in women but with no statistically significant difference (p>0.05). When comparing the stress, anxiety, and depression scores obtained for respondents with and without bruxism, significantly higher values were detected in the case of people with manifestations of bruxism than in normal individuals (p=0.006, p=0.037, and p=0.032). The study revealed a particular association between masticatory muscle fatigue and sleep bruxism, an association absent in awake bruxism. This proved once more that the two clinical forms of bruxism were different pathophysiological entities requiring a specific, individualized approach.