Association Among Self‐Reported Bruxism, Stress and Headache in a Sample of Adolescents: A Cross‐Sectional Study

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the prevalence of self-reported awake bruxism and self-reported sleep bruxism among elementary and middle school students and its association with stress and primary headache. METHODS: Three questionnaires were applied: questions about parafunction and behavioural habits for bruxism diagnosis, International Headache Society questionnaire for headache prevalence analysis, Lipp's inventory symptoms of stress (ISSL) for stress assessment. For the analysis of the data, the chi-square test was performed to compare proportions with 95% CI and the relative risk ratio test was also applied to study association with age and race. The level of significance was 5%. RESULTS: A total of 209 adolescents participated in the study. The prevalence was 3.8% for self-reported sleep bruxism, 8.13% for self-reported awake bruxism and 49.3% for bruxism, regardless of the frequency. There was an association among self-reported sleep bruxism, headache (p = 0.037) and stress (p = 0.000); self-reported awake bruxism, age (p = 0.024) and stress (p = 0.007); as well as similarly for the simultaneity of self-reported awake bruxism and sleep bruxism. CONCLUSION: There was also an association among stress, some symptoms of sleep bruxism and parafunctional and occupational habits. The findings suggest a significant association between self-reported sleep bruxism, self-reported awake bruxism, stress and self-reported headache.