ABSTRACT
Objective: Treatment of sleep bruxism (SB) in children is not well established. The aim of this study was to develop evidence-based recommendations on SB therapy in children between the ages of 2 and 17.
Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted. Literature searches were performed using MedLine (PubMed), Web of Science, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library (November 30 2017).
Results: The search strategy identified 268 potential articles; 10 papers were included in the qualitative synthesis and 3 in the meta-analysis, for a total of 94 patients. Hydroxyzine therapy showed the strongest efficacy on SB (OR 10.63; CI 95%, 1.48 to 76.08). Flurazepam and Melissa officinalis therapies presented lower grades of association with decreased SB symptoms.
Conclusions: Data on treatments of SB in children are limited. Future studies with a proper design, conducted on a meaningful number of patients, and based on standardized and developed diagnostic criteria are desperately needed.
Availability of data and materials
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Contributors
All listed authors made valuable contributions to the development of this manuscript. Conception and Design: GI, MM. Collection and assembly of data: VL. Analysis and interpretation of the data: FC. Drafting of the article: MM, VL. Critical revision of the article for important intellectual content: GI, LO. Final edition of the manuscript: LO, AP.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Ethics approval
Not applicable.
Supplementary material
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