Diagnosis of sleep bruxism can assist in the detection of cases of verbal school bullying and measure the life satisfaction of adolescents

Background Adolescence is a period with changes and conflicts. Aim The aim of this study was to investigate the association between sleep bruxism, verbal bullying at school, and life satisfaction among Brazilian adolescents. Design A cross-sectional study of 1344 Brazilian adolescents was performed. Possible sleep bruxism was identified using the consensus criteria based on the reports of parents. The parents and the adolescents answered validated questionnaires. The data were statistically analyzed using the chi-squared test, Mann–Whitney U-test, and Poisson regression with robust variance. Results A total of 205 adolescents presented possible sleep bruxism (15.3%). This parafunction was more prevalent among adolescents who were victims of verbal bullying at school (PR: 6.31; 95% CI: 4.78–8.32), victim/perpetrators (PR: 5.27; 95% CI: 3.82–7.27), and who belonged to families from a higher socioeconomic status (RP: 1.51; 95% CI: 1.23–1.86). Possible sleep bruxism was also associated with higher scores in the domains of self (PR: 1.04; 95% CI: 1.00–1.08), school (PR: 1.05; 95% CI: 1.02–1.09) and self-efficacy (PR: 1.07; 95% CI: 1.03–1.12), and lower scores in the non-violence domain (PR: 0.96; 95% CI: 0.93–0.99). Conclusions Possible sleep bruxism can assist in the detection of adolescents involved in school bullying at school in the roles of victim and victim/perpetrator.