Reported bruxism and stress experience in media personnel with or without irregular shift work

A standardized questionnaire was mailed to all employees of the Finnish Broadcasting Company with irregular shift work (n = 750) and to an equal number of randomly selected controls with regular 8-hour daytime work. The aim was to analyze whether irregular shift work, workload in terms of weekly working hours, dissatisfaction with current workshift schedule, health-care use, age and gender were associated with self-reported bruxism and experienced stress. The response rates were 58.3% (n = 874, 53.7% men) overall, 82.3% (n = 617, 56.6% men) for irregular shift workers and 34.3% (n = 257, 46.7% men) for the regular daytime work group. Those with irregular shifts were more often dissatisfied with their current workshift schedule than those in daytime work (25.1% versus 5.1%, P < 0.01). Irregular shift work was significantly associated with more frequent stress (P < 0.001), but not with self-reported bruxism. Workers dissatisfied with their current schedule reported both bruxism (P < 0.01) and stress (P < 0.001) more often than those who felt satisfied. In multivariate analyses, frequent bruxism was significantly associated with dissatisfaction with current workshift schedule (P < 0.05), number of dental visits (P < 0.05), and visits to a physician (P < 0.01), and negatively associated with age (P < 0.05), while severe stress was significantly positively associated with number of visits to a physician (P < 0.001). It was concluded that dissatisfaction with one's workshift schedule and not merely irregular shift work may aggravate stress and bruxism.