Manifestation of bruxism among students of LUS and LUHS and it's relation to stress perception and physical activity;

Importance of the problem and aim: Students often feel stress at university. Stress can be felt for a variety of reasons – problems in academic or in their personal life. All the negative factors, like stress and anxiety can cause disorders like a bruxism. Bruxism, or grinding teeth, is a dysfunction of the teeth and jaws, when the chewing muscles are strongly tensed and the upper and lower teeth surfaces are pathologically rubbing against each other. Bruxism is defined as a parafunction when the teeth are heavily constricted during the day, or grinding at night while sleeping. This disorder is characterized by a pathological stretch of chewing muscles, which eventually causes unpleasant sensations or pain. Recently, the importance of physical activity in improving health has been highlighted. More people are starting to do sports. The aim of this study is to evaluate the manifestation of stress and bruxism between physically active and physically inactive students. Material and methods: This research was carried out in Kaunas, at the Faculty of Dentistry and Medicine of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LUHS) and at the Lithuanian Sports University (LUS) Training Systems Facility. The 3rd and 4th year students of the LUHS and LUS were interviewed. Four different self-assessment questionnaires were submitted to the students. Statistical data analysis was performed with SPSS 23.0 and Microsoft Office Excel 2007 software packages. The results are presented in figures (n) and in percent (%), p value <0.05 is considered statistically significant. Results: The manifestation of bruxism (according to the intensity of physical activity among students of the Lithuanian University of Sport) is statistically significant. It does not differ significantly between students of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. We found that bruxism is more common in non-sports people. Correlation between the signs of bruxism and stress is statistically significant among students of LUS, but there is no significant difference between students of LUHS. Conclusions: The prevalence of bruxism amongst students at the LUS trainer systems is 20.4 %, and among the LUHS dentistry and medical students is 31.8 %. Assessing the results of both universities, bruxism affects 26.72 % of men and 25 % of women. Only two signs of bruxism (\"waking up with strong teeth biting or aching mouth\" and \"difficulty opening the mouth widely\") differ significantly between both universities and, according to other signs of bruxism, are not significantly different. Bruxism is more common in physically inactive students. The more days per week a student is physically active, the less likely they are to have the symptoms of bruxism (p = 0.01). The relationship between stress and bruxism is statistically significant among LUS students according to three signs of stress (whether the respondent is nervous, his daily activity causes a high-tension p = 0.0001, r = 0.05, at the end of the day the respondent is completely physically and mentally exhausted p = 0.041