The Relationship of Psychological Status and Sociodemographic Factors with Bruxism among Undergraduate Dental Students: A National Survey

Background: Although its etiology is not fully known, the accepted view is that bruxism is a multifactorial disorder. Aims: This study aims to evaluate the prevalance of self-reported bruxism and to investigate its relationship with psychological and sociodemographical factors amongst undergraduate dental students in Zonguldak, Turkey. Subjects and Methods: 250 dental students were asked to fill the bruxism questionnaire - to detect the prevelance of bruxism; personal information form - to determine sociodemographic variables; and symptom checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R) - to asses psychological state. Data were analyzed statistically by Kolmogorov Smirnov, Shapiro Wilk, Mann Whitney U, and Kruskal Wallis tests through Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program. Results: The prevalance of self-reported bruxism was 40%. 46% of the students showed higher levels of psychological symptoms. SCL-90-R subscales showed statistically significant differences in students with bruxism compared to those without bruxism (P < 0.05). It was observed that bruxism was associated with gender (P < 0.05) and both bruxism and psychological symptom levels were statistically higher in females (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The findings revealed that, although bruxism was common among dental students, gender and psychosocial factors are also mostly associated with the etiology of bruxism. In this context, during the challenging dentistry education period, it is important to direct students who are found to have high levels of psychological symptoms to psychological counseling and guidance services.