Sleep bruxism and GERD correlation in a general population convenience sample

Objective: To investigate the relationship between sleep bruxism(SB) and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) with the use of validated questionnaires in a general population convenience sample.

Methods: SB behaviour was evaluated in accordance with the Subject-Based Assessment strategy recommended in the Standardized Tool for the Assessment of Bruxism (STAB). .To evaluate GERD-related symptoms, the GERD-Q questionnaire was adopted. To study the correlation between current SB and GERD, Spearman test was performed. Mann-Whitney-U test was adopted to compare GERD-related symptoms in two distinct group comparisons based on the presence of current SB and a history of SB, respectively.

Results: A significant but weak positive correlation between current SB and GERD was found (r = .112; p = .044). No significant differences in GERD-related symptoms between groups emerged.

Conclusions: This investigation showed a positive but weak correlation between current SB and GERD-related symptoms. Larger scale studies in representative samples are needed to further explore this correlation.