Long-term variability of sleep bruxism and psychological stress in patients with jaw-muscle pain: report of two longitudinal clinical cases

Abstract

Background

Sleep bruxism (SB) and psychological stress are commonly considered as contributing factors in the etiology of temporomandibular disorder (TMD) pain. However the lack of longitudinal studies and fluctuating nature of SB, psychological stress and TMD-pain have led to contradictory results regarding the association between the possible etiological factors and TMD-pain.

Objective

The purpose of this study was to determine the contribution of SB and psychological stress to TMD-pain in a longitudinal study of two clinical TMD-pain cases during a 6-week study-protocol.

Methods

Two female volunteers with clinically diagnosed myalgia based on the Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (DC/TMD) participated in the study. Questionnaires were used to record jaw-muscle pain and psychological stress experience, and an ambulatory polysomnography technique was used to record SB intensity.

Results

Visual analysis of the data revealed that the intensity of TMD-pain was not hardwired, neither with psychological stress experience nor with increased SB activity.

Conclusion

Within the limitations of single-patient clinical cases design, our study suggested that the presence of TMD-pain cannot be explained by a simple linear model which takes psychological stress or SB into account. It also seems that psychological stress was a more important predictor factor for TMD-pain than SB.

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