International consensus on the assessment of bruxism: Report of a work in progress.

In 2013, consensus was obtained on a definition of bruxism as repetitive masticatory muscle activity characterised by clenching or grinding of the teeth and/or by bracing or thrusting of the mandible and specified as either sleep bruxism or awake bruxism. In addition, a grading system was proposed to determine the likelihood that a certain assessment of bruxism actually yields a valid outcome. This study discusses the need for an updated consensus and has the following aims: (i) to further clarify the 2013 definition and to develop separate definitions for sleep and awake bruxism; (ii) to determine whether bruxism is a disorder rather than a behaviour that can be a risk factor for certain clinical conditions; (iii) to re-examine the 2013 grading system; and (iv) to develop a research agenda. It was concluded that: (i) sleep and awake bruxism are masticatory muscle activities that occur during sleep (characterised as rhythmic or non-rhythmic) and wakefulness (characterised by repetitive or sustained tooth contact and/or by bracing or thrusting of the mandible), respectively; (ii) in otherwise healthy individuals, bruxism should not be considered as a disorder, but rather as a behaviour that can be a risk (and/or protective) factor for certain clinical consequences; (iii) both non-instrumental approaches (notably self-report) and instrumental approaches (notably electromyography) can be employed to assess bruxism; and (iv) standard cut-off points for establishing the presence or absence of bruxism should not be used in otherwise healthy individuals; rather, bruxism-related masticatory muscle activities should be assessed in the behaviour's continuum.

Depressive symptoms account for differences between self-reported versus polysomnographic assessment of sleep quality in women with myofascial TMD.

Patients with temporomandibular disorder (TMD) report poor sleep quality on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). However, polysomnographic (PSG) studies show meagre evidence of sleep disturbance on standard physiological measures. The present aim was to analyse self-reported sleep quality in TMD as a function of myofascial pain, PSG parameters and depressive symptomatology. PSQI scores from 124 women with myofascial TMD and 46 matched controls were hierarchically regressed onto TMD presence, ratings of pain intensity and pain-related disability, in-laboratory PSG variables and depressive symptoms (Symptoms Checklist-90). Relative to controls, TMD cases had higher PSQI scores, representing poorer subjective sleep and more depressive symptoms (both P < 0·001). Higher PSQI scores were strongly predicted by more depressive symptoms (P < 0·001, R2 = 26%). Of 19 PSG variables, two had modest contributions to higher PSQI scores: longer rapid eye movement latency in TMD cases (P = 0·01, R2 = 3%) and more awakenings in all participants (P = 0·03, R2 = 2%). After accounting for these factors, TMD presence and pain ratings were not significantly related to PSQI scores. These results show that reported poor sleep quality in TMD is better explained by depressive symptoms than by PSG-assessed sleep disturbances or myofascial pain. As TMD cases lacked typical PSG features of clinical depression, the results suggest a negative cognitive bias in TMD and caution against interpreting self-report sleep measures as accurate indicators of PSG sleep disturbance. Future investigations should take account of depressive symptomatology when interpreting reports of poor sleep.

A retrospective survey of the oral conditions of 981 patients referred to an oral medicine private practice.

A retrospective survey of 981 patients seen in a private oral medicine practice from 1980-87 was conducted to gather information on several defined parameters. Inferences extracted from this information can be applied to long-range planning in clinical, educational, and research areas.