Snoring as a Possible Protective Factor for Temporomandibular Joint Disorders

Previous studies have linked sleep quality to temporomandibular joint disorders (TMD), suggesting a role for snoring in this association. However, the directionality of this relationship remains a subject of debate. This investigation aimed to elucidate the connections between snoring and TMD.

This research employed a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) approach, leveraging publicly available large-scale genome-wide association study (GWAS) data on snoring and TMD. We utilised a suite of analytical methods, including the inverse variance weighted (IVW) method, maximum likelihood estimation, adjusted profile score, weighted median, MR-Egger regression, and a series of sensitivity analyses, to rigorously assess the existence of relationships.

Our findings indicate that a greater genetic predisposition to snoring is significantly associated with a reduced risk of TMD (IVW method; odds ratio [OR] = 0.156, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.028-0.843, p = 0.0309). Conversely, the analysis did not support a potential influence of TMD on snoring susceptibility (IVW method; 95% CI = 0.990 to 1.002, p = 0.1926). Additionally, our sensitivity analyses did not reveal any significant pleiotropy that could bias these findings.

This MR study provides limited but novel genetic evidence supporting a potential causal link between snoring and a decreased risk of developing TMD. On the other hand, it does not substantiate an effect of TMD on the likelihood of snoring.