International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | July 2021 | Vol 8 | Issue 7 Page 3371 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Bhatia R et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2021 Jul;8(7):3371-3378 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article A hospital based case control study to explore the association between Bruxism and Cardiovascular diseases in Kangra region of Himachal Pradesh Ragini Bhatia 1 , Divya Nair H. 1 , Mukul Kumar Bhatnagar 2 , Saloni Sood 3 , Praveen Kumar 4 , Rajesh Chaudhary 5 * INTRODUCTION Bruxism is characterized by grinding of the teeth and is accompanied by clenching of the jaw. In 2018, a consensus statement was issued by Lobbezzo et al in which they included “Bracing” and “Thrusting” to the definition of bruxism and, also showed that bruxism is a centrally controlled phenomenon. 1 Sleep Bruxism (SB) is a masticatory muscle activity during sleep that is characterized as rhythmic (phasic) or non-rhythmic (tonic) and is not just a “movement” or “sleep” disorder in otherwise healthy individuals. Awake Bruxism (AB) is a masticatory muscle activity during wakefulness that is characterized by repetitive or sustained tooth contact. 2 A systematic review by Manfredini et al described the epidemiology of bruxism and, reported the prevalence of ABSTRACT Background: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) have a huge social and economic impact all over the world. Therefore research needs to analyse emerging risk factors for CVDs. Bruxism is a health problem that has low prevalence in the community but may be associated with CVDs. It leads to poor oral health and significantly impacts the quality of life. Studies showing association of CVDs and Bruxism are sparse and, none in Indian context. Methods: This study was conducted in two hospitals of Kangra region of Himachal Pradesh between the months of April 2020 to June 2020. Due to rising infection rates of COVID-19 cases, 160 patients were enrolled in the study and divided into two groups. 80 patients with a positive history for CVD were included as cases while another 80 patients without any known history for CVD were included in the control group. Self-reporting questionnaire and tooth wear index (TWI) were used as research instruments. Results: An unadjusted odd’s ratio of 2.43 (95% CI, 1.28-4.68) and p value of 0.0069, was found when only self- reported bruxism was taken into account. But when self-reporting of bruxism was combined with TWI, an unadjusted odd’s ratio (logit OR) of 3.16 (95% CI, 1.66-6.21) and p value of 0.000529 was found, explaining that the odds of having CVD are 3.16 times higher in patients with bruxism than in those without bruxism. Conclusions: Bruxism is significantly associated with cardiovascular diseases. More studies, with larger sample size are required to firmly establish the causative relationship between bruxism and CVDs. Keywords: Bruxism, Cardiovascular diseases, Dental hygiene, Tooth wear index 1 Department of Public Health, IIPH, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India 2 Department of Cardiology, Dr. RPGMC, Tanda, Himachal Pradesh 3 Department of Anaesthesia, Pt. JLNGMC, Chamba, Himachal Pradesh 4 Department of Dentistry, 5 Department of Surgery, Civil Hospital Nagrota Bagwan, Himachal Pradesh Received: 23 April 2021 Revised: 30 May 2021 Accepted: 31 May 2021 *Correspondence: Dr. Rajesh Chaudhary, E-mail: topgun.chaudhary@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20212590