It has been found that people who experience grinding or clenching of their teeth while sleeping, known as sleep bruxism, are more likely than the general population to report other sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome.
Sleep bruxism (SB) – a repetitive activity of the jaw muscles characterized by clenching or grinding of teeth during sleep – may be a risk factor for developing other sleep-related disorders, according to study results published in Sleep Medicine.
With a prevalence greater than 10% in the adult population, SB has been linked to several undesirable symptoms, including waking headache, TMJ pain, and severe mechanical tooth wear.
In addition, researchers note that previous research suggested that the development of SB events may be preceded by a cascade of events related to sleep arousal that is related to other sleep-related disorders such as sleep disorders. B. Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and epilepsy have been linked.
“However, there are currently no systematic reviews of SB as a comorbidity of other sleep-related disorders. Such reviews would help sleep health professionals gain insight into the occurrence of SB in patients with other sleep-related disorders, as well as the underlying mechanisms of such comorbid associations, ”they said.
To determine the prevalence of SB in adult patients with other sleep-related disorders and to identify potential underlying mechanisms of these associations, they conducted a systematic review of relevant studies published in the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases to 05/15/2020.
Use of Risk of Bias Assessment Tool for assessing the quality of 1539 non-randomized studies were collected, 37 of which qualified for the full-text reading phase and the subsequent systematic review.
The review found that the prevalence of SB was significantly higher in adult patients with OSA, restless legs syndrome, periodic limb movements during sleep, sleep-related gastroesophageal reflux disease, REM behavior disorder (RBD), and sleep-related epilepsy. with the general population.
Additional associations with Parkinson’s disease (PD) have been identified in patients with SB, but the specific mechanisms behind it and other positive associations could not be identified.
“Although the specific mechanisms behind the associations between SB and other sleep-related disorders have not yet been identified, given all the available evidence, sleep arousal could be a common factor that is associated with all identified disorders except RBD and PD. “Wrote the authors.
The researchers concluded that the associations between SB and these sleep-related disorders require more SB screening in patients with these disorders. They also recommended that medical specialists raise awareness of SB as a possible indicator of associated sleep-related disorders and advocate closer collaboration between medical specialists and dentists.
Kuang B, Li D, Lobbezoo F, et al. Associations between sleep bruxism and other sleep-related disorders in adults: a systematic review. Schlaf Med. Published online November 19, 2021. doi: 10.1016 / j.sleep.2021.11.008