Intestinal Parasites and Bruxism in Children

There has been a widespread debate over the existence of a relationship between intestinal parasites and bruxism. While some authors suggested that parasites may play a role in bruxism (1-5), others do not confirm this association (6). Since detection of etiology of bruxism in every patient seems to be necessary to make an effective treatment plan, and bruxism may be an early sign of parasitic infections which can potentially lead to serious complications in future, We investigated the frequency distribution of intestinal parasites among infected bruxist children as well as the prevalence of bruxism in this rural area (Falavarjan) which is a hyperendemic region of parasitic infections. In a cross-sectional descriptive study, we recruited 3-6 year-old children (n=4964) from rural areas of Falavarjan district. Bruxism was assessed by a questionnaire and a face to face interview with parents. Parasitosis was determined by stool exam and scotch tape test. The diagnostic parasitological exam included direct, formol-ether concentration, scotch tape and staining methods. There were 427 children with bruxism which means the prevalence was 8.6%. The prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections (pathogenic and/or non-pathogenic) among these bruxist rural children was 15.7%. According to T-paired test the mean number of infected and non-infected children were 4.59 1.1 and 4.54 1.2, respectively. We observed that the difference between two age groups was not statistically significant (P=0.76). Taken together, it can be concluded that although parasitic infection was a prevalent problem of 3-6 year-old children with bruxism in our samples, our results suggest that parasitic infections may not lead to bruxism, and there is no causative relationship between bruxism and intestinal parasitic infections.