Systematic Review on the Link between Sleep Bruxism and Systemic Chronic Inflammation

Abstract

Sleep bruxism (SB) is a sleep-related behavior characterized as rhythmic (phasic) or non-rhythmic (tonic) masticatory muscle activity. SB is a common sleep behavior with a predominantly central origin. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the relationship between inflammatory status and SB according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses 2020 (PRISMA 2020). The research was registered at PROSPERO (CRD42023395985). We performed a systematic literature analysis using five different databases. Furthermore, the backward snowballing technique was applied to identify additional papers. Initially, 28 papers were screened from the database search, and 162 papers were revealed in the backward snowballing process. Eventually, five articles were included. Data concerning the inflammatory status of patients experiencing SB were investigated and summarized. Due to the heterogeneity of the compared studies, only a qualitative comparison and narrative summary were performed. The results suggest that SB could be associated with systemic inflammation. In fact, this systematic review revealed that there are no papers conclusively showing that the inflammatory status in bruxers is comparable to non-bruxers. However, each of the examined studies utilized different methods of assessing systemic inflammation, which makes the results dubious.

Inflammatory Markers and Sleep Architecture in Sleep Bruxism—A Case-Control Study

“…Moreover, the literature contains only one study based on polysomnography [32], which is a gold standard in the diagnosis of SB. Due to the heterogeneity of the compared studies, only a qualitative comparison and narrative summary could be performed; however, the results supported the thesis that sleep bruxism could be associated with systemic inflammation [26]. In the last few years, more attention has been paid to the study of sleep architecture in patients experiencing bruxism during sleep, as it has been proven successive micro-arousals increased cardiovascular risk [33].…”

“…The findings from the recent systematic review [26] based on original studies [28-32] indicated a higher intensity of SB could be associated with higher levels of proinflammatory parameters. Moreover, there have not been found any papers suggesting the inflammatory status in bruxers was comparable to nonbruxers [26].…”

“…The findings from the recent systematic review [26] based on original studies [28-32] indicated a higher intensity of SB could be associated with higher levels of proinflammatory parameters. Moreover, there have not been found any papers suggesting the inflammatory status in bruxers was comparable to nonbruxers [26]. Recently, there has also been published a systematic review supporting the thesis there was a positive correlation between inflammation and masticatory muscle myalgia [71].…”

“…Moreover, the prevalence of other sleep-related disorders, like obstructive sleep apnea, sleep-related gastroesophageal reflux disease, periodic limb movement during sleep, restless leg syndrome, REM behavior disorder (RBD) and sleep-related epilepsy increases the incidence of sleep bruxism in comparison with the general population [25]. In a recently performed systematic review, it has been observed sleep bruxism could be associated with systemic inflammation [26]. Taken into account that patients with systemic autoimmune disease are at a substantially higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) in comparison with the general population [27], we designed a case-control study to support the foregoing premise.…”

“…Foregoing data on the relationship between SB and the systemic inflammation are scarce [26]. Only five original studies have investigated this relationship in a way allowing them to be included in the systematic review [28][29][30][31][32].…”