Relationship between obstructive sleep apnea and bruxism in patients older than 18 years. Systemic review of the literature

Abstract

Background: the etiology of bruxism and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome has been considered
multifactorial. The latter is an event that arises as a protection phase for respiratory events and that occur shortly after the end of the apnea, that is, they develop in the micro awakenings that arise during sleep. Purpose: The objective of this study is to establish the relationship between obstructive sleep apnea and bruxism in patients over 18 years of age.
Materials and methods: electronic search in databases: PubMed, Medigraphic and Google Academic. Results: 54 articles were selected to be analyzed, 8 articles were discarded, since they did not establish data regarding the relationship between bruxism and obstructive sleep apnea, 4 were excluded for being duplicates. 21 studies were evaluated, where 5 articles were discarded, since their results were inconclusive. Of the 16 remaining articles, 13 were chosen, of which the full text was read and 3 were excluded, since they were studies based on edentulous and infantile patients and are not considered relevant for this study. Therefore, 10 final articles were included for discussion in this systematic review. Conclusions: it can be concluded that bruxism and obstructive sleep apnea are related to each other, with Bruxism being a secondary effect in order to protect the body, when a decrease in oxygen saturation occurs, causing micro awakenings and a increase in the rhythm of the chewing muscles, generating an impact on the individual quality of life and their usual performance.