Association between self-reported sleep bruxism and temporomandibular disorder in undergraduate students from Brazil.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between self-reported sleep bruxism and temporomandibular disorder in undergraduate students from Brazil.

METHODS: Descriptive, cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, carried out on 600 undergraduate students of a faculty from Brazil. The Fonseca's Anamnestic Index and the Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorder-axis II were used.

RESULTS: Of the 600 students, women (63%), aged ≤23 years old (60.7%) and economy class C (48.5%) prevailed. Regarding sex, women were the most affected (67.9%) by TMD; 82% of the students who reported sleep bruxism had TMD, equivalent to 5.28 times the chance of developing temporomandibular disorder.

CONCLUSION: Perceived sleep bruxism and TMD had a high prevalence among undergraduate students, with a statistically significant association. However, it is not possible to establish a cause-effect relationship between the two pathologies based only on questionnaires, so further studies are needed to demonstrate this association.