Prevalence and Severity of Sleep Bruxism in Edentulous Patients

Abstract

Aims: Edentulous patients can also suffer from sleep bruxism (SB), just like dentate patients. This study aims to evaluate the prevalence and severity of SB in edentulous patients using the definitive method.Methods: Twenty‐three edentulous patients underwent treatment with new conventional complete dentures. Definitive SB was evaluated using the Bruxoff (portable electromyography device) while sleeping at home. The prevalence of SB was assessed by the Bruxmeter software, where SB was evaluated as “absent” (score zero), “light” (<2 episodes), “moderate” (between 2 and 4 episodes), or “severe” (>4 episodes). The prevalence was expressed with descriptive statistics in percentage using the number of detected cases out of the total number of patients.Results: Eighteen patients (78.26%) were diagnosed with SB. The severity of SB was 55.5%, 5.5%, and 39% for the light, moderate, and severe scores, respectively.Conclusions: Almost 8 out of 10 edentulous patients have SB. Approximately half of the SB‐detected patients showed moderate to severe severity of bruxism as measured by a commercial, at‐home device.