Prevalence of Bruxism and Associated Occupational Stress in Saudi Arabian Fighter Pilots.

OBJECTIVES

To assess the prevalence of bruxism and occupational stress among Saudi Arabian fighter pilots.

METHODS

This was an observational, cross-sectional study where 110 fighter pilots were compared with 110 control non-pilots. The data collection was carried out by two dentists between February 2018 and May 2019. The subjects who consented to the study completed the Karasek's Demand-Control questionnaire (short version) comprising 11 questions (5 for demand and 6 for control) designed to measure occupational stress. The assessment of bruxism was made using the non-instrumental approach of the International Consensus on the Assessment of Bruxism which includes both clinical examination and self-report of diurnal and nocturnal bruxism. A logistic regression test was performed with bruxism as the dependent variable controlling for occupational stress, type of occupation, and smoking status.

RESULTS

The total sample comprising pilots and non-pilots had an overall bruxism prevalence of 41.8%, with more pilots (52.7%) than non-pilots (30.9%) having the condition. Occupational stress was experienced by more pilots than non-pilots (45.5% vs. 27.3%, respectively). Bruxism was significantly associated with type of occupation (pilots vs. non-pilots) controlling for occupational stress in both univariate and multivariate logistic regression tests; odd ratio (OR) = 2.5; (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.1-5.4, p = 0.016) and OR = 2.6; (95% CI:1.2-5.8, = 0.020), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

The pilots demonstrated significantly higher occupational stress and bruxism than the non-pilots. The pilots were 3.9 times more likely to have a combination of stress and bruxism than non-pilots. Further investigations are necessary to determine whether any causal relationship exists between occupational stress and bruxism.