Self-reported bruxism mirrors anxiety and stress in adults

Objectives: The aims were to analyze whether the levels of self-reported bruxism and anxiety associate among otherwise healthy subjects, and to investigate the independent effects of anxiety and stress experience on the probability of self-reported bruxism.

Study Design: As part of a study on irregular shift work, a questionnaire was mailed to all employees of the Finnish Broadcasting Company with irregular shift work (number of subjects: n=750) and to an equal number of randomly selected employees in the same company with regular eight-hour daytime work.

Results: The response rates were 82.3% (56.6 % men) and 34.3 % (46.7 % men), respectively. Among the 874 respondents, those aware of more frequent bruxism reported significantly more severe anxiety (p<0.001). Adjusted by age and gender, frequent bruxers were more than two times more likely to report severe stress (odds ratio 2.5; 95% confidence interval 1.5-4.2) and anxiety (odds ratio 2.2; 95% confidence interval 1.3-3.6) than non-or-mild bruxers.

Conclusions: Present findings suggest that self-reported bruxism and psychological states such as anxiety or stress may be related in working age subjects.