Prevalence of bruxism awareness in Istanbul, Turkey

The reported prevalence of symptoms related to bruxism varies in the general population because of different investigative methodologies, operational definitions, clinical criteria, and samples of population. Awareness of bruxism in the general population is 15% to 23%, however, this rate increases to 50% to 90% in clinical studies. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of self-reported symptoms associated with bruxism in Istanbul, Turkey and to analyze the correlation between bruxism and factors such as age, gender, marital status, and occupation. Seven-hundred-ninety-five (795) adult subjects who resided in the city of Istanbul were interviewed by telephone about their age, gender, marital status, occupation, and description of the prevalence of bruxism awareness. The overall prevalence of clenching teeth was 45.7% and that of grinding teeth was 21.6%. Women responded positively to the questions more often than men. The data showed significant differences between males and females, regarding clenching teeth OR: 1.41 (95% CI: 1.05-1.87), difficulty opening OR: 2.64 (95% CI: 1.63-4.26), headache on awakening OR: 2.28 (95% CI: 1.58-3.27) joint sounds OR: 1.72 (95% CI: 1.24-2.38), sore on awakening OR: 2.97 (95% CI: 1.91-4.61), influence in daily activity (OR: 2.26 CI: 1.38-3.67). Tooth wear in the married group was higher than the single group. Age distribution showed significant differences related to grinding teeth, tooth wear and joint sounds. There were statistically significant differences between bruxism and job categories. As a conclusion, this study suggest an association between bruxism and stressful events such as marital status and job problems.