MANIFESTATION OF SLEEP BRUXISM ACCORDING TO THE AGE OF PATIENTS
32
muscles occur [17]. The thickness and hypertrophy of
the masticatory muscles also depend on the age of the
patients [18, 19, 20]. Based on the age factor, the degree
of severity is also various for the manifestations of sleep
bruxism. It is being assumed that the peculiarities of
bruxism based on the age factor are manifested under
the influence of cofactors (alcohol, caffeine, nicotine,
etc.), professional activity, and especially stressful
professions [6,12]. Currently, there are no sufficient
studies on the peculiarities of SB manifestation based
on the age of the patients, while the etiopathogenetic
causes of this phenomenon are not yet clear. A clinical-
neurophysiological study of bruxism at various periods
of life will allow the development of a diagnostic and a
treatment algorithm based on the age of the patients.
Clinical signs and the subjective symptoms of sleep
bruxism are considered to be neither always present,
nor evident [4]. In many cases, sleep bruxism is latent
(subclinical), without being revealed during common
dental exam. In the subclinical variants of sleep bruxism,
the disorder is identified when various complications
arise (dental abrasion, root fractures, etc.). This
ascertains the need of developing diagnostic methods
that may be able to identify bruxism in patients of
various ages at the initial stages of the disorder, using
pathogenetically argumented methods.
Purpose of the study – highlighting the peculiarities
of the clinical manifestations of primary sleep bruxism
according to the age of the patients.
2. Materials and methods
The study has been approved by the Committee of
Research Ethics of the „Nicolae Testemiţanu” State
University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Chişinău,
Republic of Moldova (minutes no. 37/04.04.2016).
One hundred patients with primary sleep bruxism
were investigated (Table 1).
The diagnosis of SB was performed following the
current international criteria, including: 1) medical
history, 2) application of clinical questionnaires, 3)
dental clinical examination (intraoral and extraoral),
4) EMG assessment for a period of several days, 5)
recording of the SB nocturnal episodes for a period of
several nights, 6) ultrasonographic exami