Association between mandibular torus and parafunctional activity

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the association between mandibular torus and its size with the presence of bruxism and other variables related to parafunctional activity (e.g. anxiety, wear facets, self-perception and family members perception of bruxism, headache and/or muscle fatigue). Subjects included in the study were examined and interviewed and they completed a questionnaire on anxiety. The subjects were divided into two paired groups according to age and gender with the case group formed by 100 individuals having mandibular torus and a control group formed by individuals without. Each group had 33 men and 67 women with ages ranging from 20 to 62 years old (mean age 41 years). The results showed that patients with bruxism are 4 times more likely to have mandibular torus compared to those patients without bruxism. The presence of wear facets increases the risk of mandibular torus by 20 times. Only the variables bruxism and wear facets had relatively strong correlations with the size of mandibular torus. There was a strong association between mandibular torus and presence of both bruxism and wear facets. Such correlations were positive thus indicating an important trend in which a higher degree of bruxism is related to an increased size of the mandibular torus. The other variables, despite their statistical significance, had poor correlations and thus were not found to be clinically important.