Association of self-reported bruxism and academic performance in Jazan University dental students: A cross-sectional study.

Aims: The purpose of this cross-sectional descriptive study was to investigate the association between self-reported bruxism and academic performance among dental students at Jazan University.

Material and methods: One hundred sixty-eight students (73 males and 95 females) were evaluated in this study, between the age groups of 18 years and above. Self-reported bruxism was measured by utilizing a customized questionnaire. Academic performance was analyzed using participants' grade point average (GPA) for the year. Independent t-tests and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were utilized to find the association between the self-reported bruxism and the covariate-adjusted analysis (CI 95%). The Spearmen correlation coefficient was utilized to find the correlation between the variables.

Results: The reported prevalence of self-reported bruxism was 66.25% between both genders. Males (mean = 36.86) have lower bruxism scores compared to females (mean = 42.14), suggesting a potential gender-based difference in bruxism severity. A moderate positive correlation is observed between self-reported stress levels and bruxism scores (r = 0.268**, P < 0.01), indicating that as stress levels increase, there is a tendency for bruxism scores to also increase. A weak negative correlation is observed between academic performance and bruxism scores (r = -0.034, P > 0.05), suggesting a minimal association between academic performance and bruxism severity. However, bruxism score was higher among females with higher GPA.

Conclusions: This study demonstrated a weak negative association between self-reported bruxism and academic performance. It was noteworthy that females with higher GPA and low socioeconomic status had higher bruxism scores compared to males.