Prevalence and Factors Associated with Awake Bruxism in College-Preparatory Students

Objectives: This research aimed to verify the frequency of awake bruxism (AB), levels of anxiety, depression, stress, oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL), and the presence of orofacial pain in college-preparatory students.
Methods: Therefore, students of the College Preparatory Examination Course of the Piracicaba Dental School were selected. AB was diagnosed using the Oral Behaviors Checklist and the Bruxapp mobile app for the ecological momentary assessment for 7 days. Validated questionnaires were used to obtain data on anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), stress (Perceived Stress Scale), and OHRQoL (Oral Health Impact Profile - OHIP-14.). Besides, orofacial pain was measured using the visual analog scale (VAS). After data collection, the Pearson's correlation test was used considering a significance level of 5%.
Results: The average frequency of AB, evaluated by the Bruxapp during 7 days, was 32.9% (minimum 4.1% and maximum 75.3%). Significant correlation was found between the frequency of AB and the Oral Behaviors Checklist (r = 0.673; p <.001) and OHIP-14 (r = 0.350; p =.050) questionnaires, and with the participants' sex (r =0.418; p =0.017). However, anxiety (r = 0.300; p =.095), depression (r = 0.238; p =.189), stress (r = 0.337; p =.059) and orofacial pain (r = 0.322; p =.072) did not show significant correlation with AB episodes.
Conclusions: It could be concluded that college-preparatory students had moderate to low frequency of AB and this behavior showed no correlation with psychosocial factors.