Self-reported awake bruxism and chronotype profile: a multicenter study on Brazilian, Portuguese and Italian dental students

ABSTRACT

Objective: To assess the association between self-reported awake bruxism (AB) and the chronotype profile among Brazilian, Portuguese, and Italian dental students.

Methods: A cross-sectional study involving 205 dental students was developed. Self-reported AB as well as information on sleep characteristics were collected from a questionnaire. The Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) was used to measure the chronotype profile. Descriptive statistical analysis, the chi-square test, and univariate analysis were used to evaluate the factors associated with AB.

Results: The prevalence of AB in all groups was 33.7%. The intermediate chronotype profile was the most prevalent (60.4%), and only 16.7% of the participants had the morning profile. The univariate analysis showed that older dental students (OR = 2.640, 95% CI 1.388–5.021) and those with the eveningness chronotype profile (OR = 3.370, 95% CI 1.302–8.725) are associated with AB.

Discussion: Students over the age of 22 and those with the eveningness chronotype profile were prone to AB.

KEYWORDS:

• Bruxism
• chronobiology
• cultural diversity
• dental students
• dentistry
• sleep
• wakefulness

Acknowledgments

All authors are grateful to dental students Diana Sousa and Francesca Cervinara for their valuable help in collecting data for this research.

Conflicts of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest and are alone responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Additional information

Funding

This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001”, the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) (CNPq), the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (Research Support Foundation of the State of MinasGerais) (FAPEMIG) and Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (PRPq/UFMG);Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico [405301/2016-2].