Occurrence of bruxism in a sample of Brazilian children with cerebral palsy

Bruxism has been reported to exist in many children with cerebral palsy; however, only a few studies confirm this fact. The objective of this study was to determine the rate of bruxism in children with cerebral palsy and to relate its presence to the following factors: kind of cerebral palsy, gender, age, dentition, degree of malocclusion, oral mucous membrane trauma, trismus, and number of wear facets on specific teeth. The guardians of 121 children with cerebral palsy between the ages of 4 and 9 years were interviewed and the children were clinically examined. Bruxism was detected in 69.4% of the children and reported by 57% of the guardians. In 4- and 5-year-old children, the rate of wear facets was small. Children with athetosis and spastic tetraplegia had a higher rate of bruxism than all others.