Impact of physical activity and screen time on occurrence of bruxism in children-a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: Bruxism is the habitual grinding, gnashing or clenching of teeth at times other than for the mastication of food. Bruxism is characterised by an involuntary sleep/awake parafunctional activity of the masticatory muscles, rhythmic or in spasm, and may present teeth clenching and/or grinding. The aim of this study is to evaluate the correlation between bruxism and physical activity. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted among 300 dyads of parents and children between ages 4 and 6 years of age. A questionnaire containing questions about time spent on physical activity and evaluating occurrence of bruxism. Results: The total number of children who participated in this study were 300. 160(53.33%) were male children, while the rest 140(46.67%) were female children. 152(95%) male children exhibited various signs of bruxism, while only 70(50%) of the female children had signs of bruxism. This could be attributed to the fact that 95% of the male children spent more than 2 hours with their gadgets and only 30.7% of the female children spent more than 2 hours on their gadgets. Children who practiced more physical activity, were less prone to bruxism. 91.7% of the male children got only less than 1 hour of physical activity, where as 68.5% of female children got more than 2 hours of physical activity. However, children who spent more time with gadgets were more prone to the bruxism, 80% of the male children spent more than 2 hours with their gadgets, while only 30.7% of the female children spent more than 2 hours with their gadgets. Conclusion: On the basis of the data collected physical activities can reduce stress of daily stressful life. There is a mild association between the presence of parafunctional habits and the practice of physical activity in children of ages between 4 and 6 years of age. With the given limitations of the study it can be concluded that children who played more had reduced incidence of bruxism.