Comparison Between Ecological Momentary Assessment and Self-Report of Awake Bruxism Behaviours in a Group of Healthy Young Adults

Objective: The aim of this investigation was to compare the self-reported frequency of awake bruxism (AB) behaviours by means of a validated single-observation point questionnaire (i.e., Oral Behaviour Checklist [OBC]) with the frequency reported in real-time with an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) over 1 week. Materials and Methods: One hundred healthy young adults took part in the study. The frequency of some activities belonging to the spectrum of AB behaviours (i.e., teeth contact, mandible bracing, teeth clenching, teeth grinding) was evaluated using the EMA approach with smartphone technology support over 1 week. The OBC questionnaire was used to evaluate the self-reported frequency of the same AB behaviours. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was adopted to test the correlation between the average score of each OBC question considered (i.e., teeth contact, mandible bracing, teeth clenching, teeth grinding) and the average frequency of the corresponding EMA item. Results: Statistical analysis showed a weak-to-moderate level of correlation between the two different AB assessment methods. Mandible bracing showed the highest level of correlation, while teeth grinding had the lowest one. Conclusions: While the OBC represents a valid and easy-to-administer screening tool for evaluating bruxism behaviours, the EMA approach provides a more detailed real-time report on AB behaviours.