Knowledge of parents/caregivers about the sleep bruxism of their children from all five Brazilian regions: A multicenter study

BACKGROUND: Sleep bruxism (SB) is a masticatory muscle activity that affects children. Parents' knowledge is important for its identification and report to dentists. AIM: To investigate parents' knowledge about SB among their children. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study included 1325 parents of children from dental clinics of seven institutions from all regions of Brazil. Parents answered questions about child's sleep, knowledge about SB and its occurrence among children and parents. SB definition given by parents was dichotomized as "correct"/"incorrect", based on the American Academy of Sleep Medicine definition. Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed (P   0.05). CONCLUSION: There is a lack of knowledge of parents about SB. SB among children, parents' interest in receiving more information and their location were factors associated to their knowledge.