Keywords
bruxism, ecological momentary assessment, smartphone, prevalence, COVID-19 pandemic.
Background. The return to normality post-pandemic brought some inconveniences to the population, especially students. To evaluate the frequency of awake bruxism behaviors through the use of an app on smartphones in dental students returning to presential classes. Awake bruxism was evaluated with the creation of an app that according to the authors evaluates: relaxed jaw muscles, dental contact, jaw effort, clenching teeth and teeth grinding, 5 frequent oral conditions in the population. The frequency of awake/daytime bruxism (AB) in healthy individuals when comparing other populations with possible risk factors for additive bruxism (psychological factors, depression, suicide delusions, etc.), evaluating consequent clinical signs (fatigue, muscle pain, attritions and dental openings).
Methods: The sample of three hundred (n=300) young adults legally enrolled in two Ecuadorian universities, the sample was selected among fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth semester students legally enrolled and who are attending Faculty of Dentistry classes in 2 different cities (Quito and Guayaquil). The app was configured to provide 20 alerts during the day x seven days a week, in real time.
Results. The study obtained 95% reliability and 5% error in research, was used. The relaxation condition was present in all users, but 40% of the alerts were associated with jaw and tooth discomfort, 39% corresponded to the discomfort of mandibular clenching, and 24% corresponded to tooth contact. A direct significant association was found between the state of relaxation and nonrelaxation, with a high probability of reports related to nonrelaxation (p ≤ 0.05).
Conclusions: Awake bruxism with the app was evaluated, identifying 5 behaviors such as: relaxed mandibular muscles, dental contact, mandibular effort, clenching and grinding teeth, frequent conditions in the population; reporting a state of mandibular relaxation, there is a high probability that a condition of nonrelaxation would be reported (p≤0.05).
bruxism, ecological momentary assessment, smartphone, prevalence, COVID-19 pandemic.
Responding to the reviewers, indicating that the verb evaluation was abstract around the research topic, they recommended using the verb monitor. The objective was corrected by clarifying the goal of the research in a better way, expanding the section of materials and methods with better explanation on the recommendation of the reviewers, the conclusion as it should respond to the objective was also revised. In the introduction, the wording is improved by including references suggested by the reviewers that justify the topic to be investigated. In the materials and methods, contact is made with the creators of the app via email, confirming the authorship of the same, making the application free. Table 1 with the suggested indications is changed. In the discussion it is completely reorganized, the language and references are reviewed, the suggestions to discuss clearly about the use of the app and the follow-up it provides on Awake bruxism are respected, the result of the state of relaxation that the patients had is also discussed, contrasting with other studies that applied EMA fundamental basis of the application. The conclusion is reviewed when the objective is found that the first 4 days of monitoring in the bruxism app showed symptoms such as discomfort in the jaw and teeth, from day 4 the students answered in the record of the alerts in the app that they felt relaxed, according to authors it was due to the brain action that they generate unconsciously to self-control, let's remember that Awake Bruxism is an activity that the patient does not know he has but that is generated in summer hours, for this reason scientists justify that the human brain reconditions its reactions so that it becomes preventive or is on alert of a diagnosed condition.
See the authors' detailed response to the review by Maria Beatriz Duarte Gaviao
See the authors' detailed response to the review by Swapna B V and kavishma Sulaya
Bruxism is a debated topic, especially when considering dental clinical manifestations and their relationships with other medical specialties,1 causing controversy in confronting effects and consequences. A panel of experts, including dentists, psychologists, and specialists in pain and facial pain, defined bruxism using strategies such as polysomnography (PSG) and electromyography (EMG)2 to determine whether it is triggered by specific clinical signs such as involuntary movements3 in the chewing muscles.4 There are many studies on this topic; unfortunately, scientific evidence on awake bruxism is limited. The concept of awake bruxism is currently considered muscular activity during wakefulness that is characterized by repetitive or sustained dental contact, accompanied by pushes or mandibular reinforcements (movements) during a person’s conscious activities, which is not necessarily pathological but has clinical consequences.5,6 When comparing populations, awake bruxism has risk factors such as mental disorders, depression, and suicidal delusions, among others, with clinical signs such as fatigue, muscle pain, dental attrition, and temporomandibular joint pain, suggesting the need for the evaluation of intercultural comparisons, social strata and lifestyle habits.7 Evaluation can be performed with noninstrumental approaches such as self-reports (anamnestic questionnaires), clinical observation, instrumental evaluation using electromyography (EMG), and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) strategies.2,8,9
EMA allows us to collect data in real time over a given period of time by recording multiple coincident points in the environment.10–12 This instrumentation goes beyond retrospective questionnaires, making EMA very useful in the evaluation of oral activity. The limitation of EMA is that the data are fragmented, as only specific behaviors are selected.13–15 To control this bias, in Italy, the research group under Professor Alessandro Bracci at the University of Pavoda created a smartphone app, which incorporates EMA to collect data on dental contact, jaw clenching, tooth compression and teeth grinding.16,17
The application provides data on the frequency of awake bruxism behaviors (clinical signs entered into the application) over a period of one week, with evaluation 4 times per day. These data are stored in the memory of the phone. After the evaluation time, we obtained data on the percentage and frequency of clinical signs.18
The objective of this study was to monitor the frequency of awake bruxism behaviors in dental students by using a smartphone app.
Approval was obtained from the Bioethics Committee of the University of the Americas (CEBE-2022-0601). Three hundred (n = 300) young adults who were legally enrolled in two different Ecuadorian universities (*UDLA/UESG) in Quito and Guayaquil were randomly selected after signing the informed consent form and agreeing to participate in the study. They underwent a one-week registration period with a smartphone app (BruxApp Research®, Pontedera, Italy) developed by Dr. Alessandro Bracci et al., with the aim of reporting and monitoring the frequency of AB behaviors in their natural environment; this free application can be accessed via Google Pay and the App store. The students were made aware of the responsibility of participating in the research, making their country and their university known to the world.
The sample included fifth-, sixth-, seventh-, eighth- and ninth-semester students who were legally enrolled and who were attending face-to-face classes conducted by the Faculty of Dentistry at two different Ecuadorian universities (Quito and Guayaquil). The inclusion criteria included having recent generation smartphones, good general health and the absence of temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD)/orofacial pain and/or any documented degenerative, neurological or systemic disease (e.g., rheumatological disease, hormonal disease). An informative meeting was held during which the students maintained contact with the principal investigators (BV, VM, PP, MRT, EAL, LCH, and AO).
During that session, the objective of the study was explained, and training was provided on how to use the app (Figure 1).
The Bruxism APP collects a person’s data in a self-informed way in their daily life with an EMA approach (ecological approach), sending random messages during the day that alert the person of the conditions of their teeth and jaw muscles; individuals must respond within 5 minutes by touching the cone of the screen of their cell phone and indicating the current condition of their jaw muscles: jaw muscle relaxation, teeth contact, jaw clenching, teeth clenching and teeth grinding.
The objective of the study was explained while providing training for the correct use of the application (Figure 1).
The students were instructed to download the BruxApp and asked to start their first data collection session the next morning, which included 20 alerts per day at random intervals. The participants were instructed to comply with at least 60% of the requests per day (answering within the first 5 minutes; otherwise, the screen sent an error message) Students who responded to <60% of the alerts were excluded from the study automatically. Data were recorded during a period of 7 days, the records were calibrated from 8.00 to 12.30 and from 14.30 to 22.00, and the participants were instructed to ignore alerts during meals and particular activities (smoking, singing). The application records were recorded all day. After seven valid days of recordings, the software generated an anonymous .csv file, which the students sent to the researchers via prearranged emails. The data were collected by the lead author (B. V.) in collaboration with two resident dentists of the Specialty of Oral Rehabilitation (V. M., P. P., MRT, and EAL) of dentistry and two professors (LCH and A. of the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of Guayaquil).
To maximize the recording window, lunchtime was excluded because the participants were instructed to ignore alerts during meals and activities (smoking, singing). If the minimum number of valid responses per day was not obtained, the software automatically added another recording day to ensure completion of the 7-day protocol.
For the study of awake bruxism, the chi-square test (Table 1) was used to determine the association between muscle relaxation and nonrelaxation. In the alerts from the app, in the first stage, the muscles were not in occlusal contact (maximum intercuspation); in the second stage, there was occlusal contact (maximum intercuspation) and clenching of the jaw and teeth accompanied by grinding. The existing correlation was direct despite being in different contexts, demonstrating that the conditions were present during the conscious activity of the person (awake). When reporting mandibular relaxation, there was a high probability that muscle relaxation was reported in the application (p≤0.05).
Chi-square tests | |||
---|---|---|---|
Valor | gl | Asymptotic significance (bilateral) | |
Pearson's Chi-square | 1200.000† | 16 | <.001 |
Likelihood ratio | 902.565 | 16 | <.001 |
Linear-by-linear association | 299.000 | 1 | <.001 |
N. of valid cases | 300 |
Assuming 95% reliability and 5% error in the research, a sample size of 300 young adults from the two universities involved in the study was included in simple random sampling model. The research was characterized by analyzing variables such as sex and age (Table 2).
The proportion of females among the selected sample was 84.33%, compared with that of 15.67% for males. Thus, the proportion of females in this study was significantly greater than that of males. A total of 79% of the participants were aged 21 to 22 years, which was expected since this sample set consisted of young adults studying at a university (Table 3).
Age (years)§ | n | %n |
---|---|---|
19 | 30 | 10 |
21 | 134 | 44.7 |
22 | 104 | 34.7 |
23 | 10 | 3.33 |
24 | 1 | 0.33 |
25 | 12 | 4 |
26 | 6 | 2 |
27 | 1 | 0.33 |
32 | 2 | 0.67 |
Total¶ | 300 | 100 |
Relaxation was evident in all users, but 40% of the alerts were associated with jaw and tooth discomfort, 39% corresponded to mandibular clenching, and 24% corresponded to tooth contact (Table 4).
Conditions | Alerts | % |
---|---|---|
Relaxed | 3652 | 68.9 |
Jaw clenching§ | 917 | 15.28 |
Tooth contact | 573 | 9.55 |
Tooth clenching | 487 | 8.12 |
Pain when opening/closing the mouth | 142 | 2.37 |
Daytime pressure | 142 | 2.37 |
Teeth grinding | 70 | 1.17 |
Difficulty opening the mouth when waking up | 10 | 0.17 |
Sore teeth | 7 | 0.12 |
Total | 6000 | 100 |
Thus, among the aforementioned symptoms, 63% of the alerts sent by BruxApp were related to specific symptoms. The study was conducted in one week: on the first day, 33% of the participants reported discomfort; on the second day, 61% reported maxillary discomfort; on the third day, 64% reported decreased discomfort; on the fourth day, 21% reported a decrease in discomfort; on the fifth day, the discomfort percentage was maintained; on the sixth day, 41% of the participants reported being relaxed; and on the seventh day, the percentage of participants who reported being relaxed increased by 51% (Table 5).
The collection of heterogeneous information, the calibration of personal self-reports and group reports on phones, and training in the use of the smartphone app facilitated the data collection. The included population of dental students may have had a positive influence on the results, as having knowledge of what the app is measuring limited the bias in the study.
The app used in the study to monitor the frequency of AB behavior revealed that the symptomatology found was more significant in 84% of women aged 21 to 22 years, and the daily use of technology by young people was helpful in their fulfillment of responses to the alerts of the app. This information coincides with what was proposed by Dias et al. in 2021, which indicates that the use of the EMA approach in smartphone programs for monitoring AB behaviors was useful in the long term, making individuals aware of the recognition of the different pathologies considered by the application.19,20
The BruxApp provides various frequencies and percentages depending on sex and age groups; 32.13% of women and 5.91% of men reported experiencing maxillary discomfort, justifying its diagnostic importance. The report indicated that 68.9% of alerts received responses regarding a state of relaxation (without jaw discomfort).21,22 When excluding the state of relaxation, mandibular clenching had the greatest significance at 39%. Monitoring the nonrelaxation state with five specific conditions included in the app, such as jaw muscle relaxation, tooth contact, jaw force, teeth clenching, and teeth grinding, resulted in the collection of data for >6000 alerts (20 alerts × 300 participants × 7 days).
During the 7-day observation period, data on 42000 alerts were collected. Zani et al. (2021) used the BruxApp in 2 Italian universities for monitoring AB behaviors by assessing the state of relaxation and nonrelaxation, coinciding with 5 conditions: relaxation of the mandibular musculature, 76.4%; contact with teeth, 13.6%; mandibular bracing, 7.0%; teeth clenching, 2.5%; and teeth grinding, 0.5%.21,22 Data collected using the EMA approach in observational studies indicate a reference in the frequency of AB behaviors, indicating that predisposing factors may vary in women under normal conditions, stress factors, and hormonal factors.23,24
Jaw clenching was the most frequently reported, at 15.28%, and dental pain was the least frequently reported, at 0.17%, and the combined frequency of AB in a state of nonrelaxation was 23.6%25; the consideration of psychological factors within the etiology of AB, which relates to sex, provides a statistical variable indicating that men control their emotions better26 than women do. Studies conducted by Bracci et al. (2018) showed similarities with our study, revealing a slight difference in sex when monitoring AB behaviors with EMAs, which was not a determinant of the outcome.10,27
No statistically significant differences were found between the population participating in the research (UDLA; USG), the self-reported strategies for AB, which helped in the data collection, and the alerts generated by the app during the 7-day monitoring period, which controlled the bias of the study due to the alarm that was activated according to the program.28,29
The alerts generated in the evaluation by using the application provided diverse results: 33% of participants reported experiencing jaw discomfort the first day, 61% reported it on the second day, 64% reported it on the third day, 21% reported it on the fourth day, the result did not change on the fifth day, 41% reported experiencing relaxation on the sixth day, and 51% reported experiencing relaxation on the seventh day.
The natural fluctuation in the recognition consisting of the symptomatology reported regarding the specific AB behaviors recorded in the app demonstrates considerable variability.30,31 These findings indicate that relaxed muscles are recognized in a high percentage of the investigated population, taking the baseline results as a starting point when evaluating the combined frequencies of all the symptoms of AB indicated in the app.32,33
The EMA strategy used in the smartphone application indicated a medium frequency value that provided reliability in monitoring AB behaviors, reducing the influence of natural fluctuations directly related to the specific symptomatology.34,35 Unfortunately, e-mail registration limited daytime contact with the patients with TMD,36,37 and it is recommended that future research evaluate the increase or decrease in the frequency of AB symptoms, relating them to eating habits, smoking habits, medication use, and psychological problems.38,39
Compared with the findings of other similar studies that have contributed to updating the concept of bruxism by providing strategic evaluation options,40,41 population comparisons will be made better by translating the BruxApp42,43 into several languages, which opens the possibility of conducting multicenter epidemiological research on bruxism.
During 7 days of monitoring the frequency of AB behaviors through a smartphone app, the student population experienced discomfort in the jaw and teeth in the first 4 days, reaching a state of relaxation on the seventh day.
Zenodo. Evaluation by app in smartphones of awake bruxism at the return of presential classes in two university centers, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7979723. 43
This project contains the following underlying data:
• Table 1: Significance test
• Table 2.docx (Data of distribution of the sample by gender)
• Table 3.docx (Data of distributions of sample by age)
• Table 4.docx (Data of distribution of alerts according to user conditions)
• Table 5.docx (Data of distribution of alerts according to condition among sex and age groups)
Data are available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC-BY 4.0).
The authors would like to express their special thanks to Universidad de Las Américas.
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Is the work clearly and accurately presented and does it cite the current literature?
Partly
Is the study design appropriate and is the work technically sound?
No
Are sufficient details of methods and analysis provided to allow replication by others?
No
If applicable, is the statistical analysis and its interpretation appropriate?
Partly
Are all the source data underlying the results available to ensure full reproducibility?
Yes
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the results?
No
Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed.
Reviewer Expertise: dentistry; pediatric dentistry; social and preventive dentistry; epidemiology.
Is the work clearly and accurately presented and does it cite the current literature?
Partly
Is the study design appropriate and is the work technically sound?
No
Are sufficient details of methods and analysis provided to allow replication by others?
No
If applicable, is the statistical analysis and its interpretation appropriate?
Partly
Are all the source data underlying the results available to ensure full reproducibility?
No
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the results?
No
Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed.
Reviewer Expertise: My research area are: Temporomandibular disorders, bruxism, ecological momentary assessment, fatigue, chewing performance and quantitative sensory testing.
Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed.
Reviewer Expertise: Prosthodontics
Is the work clearly and accurately presented and does it cite the current literature?
No
Is the study design appropriate and is the work technically sound?
Partly
Are sufficient details of methods and analysis provided to allow replication by others?
No
If applicable, is the statistical analysis and its interpretation appropriate?
Partly
Are all the source data underlying the results available to ensure full reproducibility?
Yes
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the results?
No
Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed.
Reviewer Expertise: Prosthodontics
Is the work clearly and accurately presented and does it cite the current literature?
Yes
Is the study design appropriate and is the work technically sound?
Yes
Are sufficient details of methods and analysis provided to allow replication by others?
Yes
If applicable, is the statistical analysis and its interpretation appropriate?
Yes
Are all the source data underlying the results available to ensure full reproducibility?
Yes
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the results?
Yes
Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed.
Reviewer Expertise: I am a prosthodontics.I am interested in digital technologies in dentistry - additive manufacturing and milling CAD/CAM. I also started working in the field of implantology.
Is the work clearly and accurately presented and does it cite the current literature?
No
Is the study design appropriate and is the work technically sound?
No
Are sufficient details of methods and analysis provided to allow replication by others?
No
If applicable, is the statistical analysis and its interpretation appropriate?
No
Are all the source data underlying the results available to ensure full reproducibility?
No
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the results?
No
Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed.
Reviewer Expertise: Oral Physiology, Temporomandibular disorders, Brruxism, Quality of life.
Alongside their report, reviewers assign a status to the article:
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