Basser Ali Abdullah^1,, Gassan Yassin Hamed¹

Bruxism is defined as the grinding or clenching of the teeth. Pathological bruxism can cause damage to dental surfaces, joint pain and many other dentally related tissues. it is assumed that 8-20% of the population suffer from bruxism. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of sleep bruxism and awake bruxism and their relation with age, gender, previous trauma, unilateral chewing, headache and ear problems. This research included 450 patients, two hundred seventy one females and one hundred seventy nine males, the age ranged between 13-65 years old, signs and symptoms of TMDs were recorded according to Helkimo index, grinding, clenching, history of previous trauma, unilateral chewing, and headache reported by the patients were recorded in a case sheet, ear problems complaints including (pain, ringing sound, buzzing sound and subjective hearing loss) were investigated and recorded. Statistical analysis was done by using Chi square and one way ANOVA tests. The result of this study reveal that the prevalence of grinding was 28.8% whereas the prevalence of clenching was 24.8%, female to male ratio was 1.5:1, the group of age between 21-30 years represent the most prevalent cluster age, they represent 60.4% from the study sample. A highly significant relationships p ≤ 0.001 among sleep, awake bruxsim and pervious trauma, unilateral chewing and headache were found in this study. There were highly significant relations between grinding, clenching and ear problems p ≤ 0.001.

sleep bruxism, awake bruxism, previous trauma, headache, unilateral chewing, and ear problems