Bruxism in children and transverse plane of occlusion: Is there a relationship or not?

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:To assess the occurrence of bruxism in deciduous dentition and a potential association between the habit and the presence or absence of posterior crossbite. METHODS: A total of 940 patient files were assessed. They were gathered from the archives of University of São Paulo City - UNICID; however, 67 patient files were dismissed for not meeting the inclusion criteria. Therefore, 873 children, males and females, comprised the study sample. They were aged between 2-6 years old and came from six different public primary schools from the east of the city of São Paulo. Data were collected through questionnaires answered by parents/guardians and by clinical examinations carried out in the school environment in order to obtain the occlusal characteristics in the transverse direction. First, a descriptive statistical analysis of all variables was performed (age, sex, race, posterior crossbite, bruxism, headache and restless sleep); then, the samples were tested by means of chi-square test with significance level set at 0.05%. A logistic regression model was applied to identify the presence of bruxism. RESULTS: The prevalence of this parafunctional habit was of 28.8%, with 84.5% of patients showing no posterior crossbite. Regarding the association of bruxism with crossbite, significant results were not found. Children with restless sleep have 2.1 times more chances of developing bruxism, whereas children with headache have 1.5 more chances. CONCLUSION: Transverse plane of occlusion was not associated with the habit of bruxism.

The psychological background of masticatory system parafunctions

“…It may co-exist with other parafunctions e.g. with nail biting, especially in younger people [18][19][20][21].…”

“…With an excessive stimulation, they produce an uncontrolled and increased contraction of the masseter muscles. In adults he prevalence of awake bruxism is about 30% [3,[18][19][20][21][22].…”

“…It is classified into the category of parasomnias, i.e. sleep disorders involving abnormal movements or behaviours of unknown origin [19,20,23,24]. It is believed that parasomnias manifest central nervous system activation and appear between sleep stages or during arousal from sleep.…”

“…The lesions are found on those dental surfaces which participate in occlusion or articulation. However, clenching during awake bruxism does not produce their wear [1,3,10,19,22,24]. Another clinically diagnosed sign of bruxism is abfraction, the loss of cervical tooth structure in the absence of caries.…”

“…Apart from objective signs visible in the clinical examination, the patient may complain of symptoms such as pain in the masticatory and cervical muscles, pain in the TMJ, tension headache, painful neck, back, throat, shoulders, and tension headaches, hypersensitive teeth or excessive tooth mobility. Moreover, patients may report numbness, paraesthesia of the facial skin, ears, and shoulders, stiff neck, pains in the spinal column, tinnitus, vision abnormalities, sleep abnormalities, general emaciation, chronic fatigue, and mental discomfort [3,7,[19][20][21][24][25][26].…”