EDITORIAL article

Front. Neurol., 21 November 2023

Sec. Headache and Neurogenic Pain

Volume 14 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2023.1331275

Editorial: Orofacial pain, bruxism, and sleep, volume II

  • 1. Department of Experimental Dentistry, Wroclaw Medical University, Wrocław, Poland

  • 2. Department of Oral Rehabilitation, Maurice and Gabriela School of Dental Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Editorial on the Research Topic Orofacial pain, bruxism, and sleep, volume II

According to the revised definition by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), pain is now defined as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or one that resembles such an experience” (). Orofacial pain, on the other hand, is described as “a common type of pain perceived in the face and/or oral cavity, resulting from diseases or disorders of regional structures, dysfunction of the nervous system, or from referral from distant sources” ().

The current international consensus () divides bruxism into two circadian manifestations: awake bruxism (AB) and sleep bruxism (SB). AB is “masticatory muscle activity during wakefulness characterized by repetitive or sustained tooth contact and/or bracing or thrusting of the mandible and is not considered a movement disorder in otherwise healthy individuals.” SB is “masticatory muscle activity during sleep characterized as either rhythmic (phasic) or non-rhythmic (tonic) and is not deemed a movement or sleep disorder in otherwise healthy individuals.” Bruxism is now viewed as a behavior with a central origin and genetic contribution, rather than a parafunction, disorder, or disease in otherwise healthy individuals (, ).

Sleep can be defined as “a physiological state characterized by alterations in brain wave activity, breathing, heart rate, body temperature, muscle function, and other bodily functions” ().

Orofacial pain, bruxism, and sleep disorders are interconnected. Complex cause-and-effect relationships exist between them, as does co-occurrence (–). These conditions are found in both genders and across all age groups, highlighting their widespread prevalence (). They can also arise or intensify due to various internal and external factors, e.g., a pandemic or war and/or an impaired lifestyle, psychoemotional disorders, chronic stress, ineffective stress coping mechanisms, addictions, genetic predispositions, and more (–). Numerous evidence-based methods are available to address and manage these issues (–).

Given the intricacies of the topics discussed (etiology, prevalence, cause and effect relationships, co-occurrence, diagnostics, and management), we urge readers to delve deeper into subjects like the traffic-light prognosis-based classification system for managing patients with headache and/or orofacial pain in musculoskeletal practice, the relationship between sleep bruxism and obstructive sleep apnea in relation to sleep architecture, a systematic review of current scientific literature evaluating masticatory muscle activity in individuals with pain-related temporomandibular disorders using surface electromyography, and the dynamic changes in local metrics for patients experiencing toothaches in a resting state, to enhance understanding of the central neural mechanisms in patients with dental pain and its cognitive and emotional effects (Wang et al.; Greenbaum and Emodi-Perlman; Okura et al.; Szyszka-Sommerfeld et al.).

Statements

Author contributions

MW: Conceptualization, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. EW: Conceptualization, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing.

Funding

The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

References

Summary

Keywords

orofacial pain, bruxism, sleep, obstructive sleep apnea, headache

Citation

Wieckiewicz M and Winocur E (2023) Editorial: Orofacial pain, bruxism, and sleep, volume II. Front. Neurol. 14:1331275. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1331275

Received

31 October 2023

Accepted

09 November 2023

Published

21 November 2023

Volume

14 - 2023

Edited and reviewed by

Massimiliano Valeriani, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital (IRCCS), Italy

Updates

Copyright

© 2023 Wieckiewicz and Winocur.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Mieszko Wieckiewicz

Disclaimer

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Outline

Cite article

Copy to clipboard


Export citation file


Share article

Share on WeChat

Scan with WeChat to share this article

Article metrics