Parental Knowledge Regarding Their Child's Habitual Bruxism – A Pilot Study

Objectives: To assess the association between parental awareness and clinical evidences of habitual bruxism in their children.
Methods: The study included 255 school going children between the age group of 7-12yrs and their respective parents residing in the same locality.sample size(255) was determined using open epi software 2.1.3 version. The survey consisted of a questionnaire regarding parental observation of the occurrence, duration of bruxism in their ward and any familial descendants of the same. Also an intra oral examination of their ward using mouth mirror and probe under daylight was done to identify the presence of wear facets on the teeth based on Johanssons criteria. The values for the wear facets were recorded and the overall score was generated for each child. Pearson chi square test was applied to the set of questions in the questionnaire, comparing them against each other.
Results: In a total of 255 children, 48 (18%) exhibited bruxism based on parental observation out of which sleep bruxism was reported in 26 children wherein wear facets indicating moderate bruxism is seen in 23 (88.5%) children. 6(12.5%) children had relatives exhibiting the same habit. Overall, Signs of moderate bruxism was seen in 24 (9.4%) children who had positive parental history of the habit.
Conclusions: An association between the positive parental responses and the wear facets were observed indicating that parents are aware and are able to recognise the habit in their child which is clinically evident.