DT News - UK - An easier way to detect bruxism

Dental Tribune International

Tue. 29 March 2016

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About 8 per cent of the world population has bruxism, a condition commonly associated with sleep disorders. While existing home testing devices are expensive and not patient friendly, Bruxlab makes it possible to detect bruxism in a cheap and easy way. The Dutch company has developed diagnostic tools to record and quantify any grinding sounds using machine learning, mobile app technology and wearables. Dental Tribune UK spoke with Michiel Allessie, owner of Bruxlab, about the algorithm used to detect bruxism.

Dental Tribune: Mr Allessie, you have been a general dentist with your own practice for over 14 years. How have you detected signs of bruxism in the past, and what have been the major disadvantages of conventional ways of diagnosing sleep bruxism?
Michiel Allessie: The clinical signs are always the same: excessive tooth wear, sensitive teeth, headaches, fatigued jaw muscles in the morning, etc. The problem is that sleep bruxism can stop spontaneously. Also, a large group of bruxers are not chronic bruxers. So, a dentist cannot determine whether there is active sleep bruxism and the patient is a chronic bruxer using the conventional clinical signs. I see this as a major disadvantage. Now, we can track patients using our DoIGrind app to see if there is active bruxism and if it is chronic. Our Bruxsticker makes it possible to measure movement of the lower jaw during sleep. The integrated nano-accelerometer and Bluetooth chip, in combination with our app, record and filter tooth-grinding sounds over multiple nights.

Bruxism is a very common medical disorder and known to cause damage to the teeth, sleep disruption, chewing difficulties, headaches and temporomandibular joint dysfunction. What is your experience of untreated bruxism?
If bruxism is left untreated, the problems with chronic patients can be very severe in the long term. For non-chronic patients, the long-term problems may be mild. I track those patients with the app twice a year to check that they have not become chronic bruxers.

You founded Bruxlab in 2014 for effective treatment of bruxism using an innovative app. What is the idea behind Bruxlab and how does it work? What should dentists and patients know?
We created an algorithm that can filter any tooth-grinding sounds and tooth contact sounds. The latter often indicate the beginning of a clenching episode. I validated the sounds using the gold standard, polysomnography, better known as a sleep test. This test will tell you if there was muscle activity at the same time that a grinding sound was detected. The device on which the app is loaded is placed next to the bed and records and filters any tooth-grinding sounds. On average, we reduce 8 hours of sleep to 5 minutes of relevant sounds. The sounds are uploaded to the cloud, where the dentist can listen to them. Most dentists recommend the app to prove to patients that they are correct about suspecting sleep bruxism.

Once bruxism has been detected using the DoIGrind app, what treatment options do you recommend to dentists and patients?
This depends on whether the patient is a chronic and severe bruxer or a non-chronic and rather mild bruxer. For the chronic and severe bruxers, I usually prescribe a splint (night guard). For other patients, I first try behavioural modification through counselling to see if they stop grinding and clenching. That is the greatest advantage about this product: you can use it over and over again at no extra cost to the patient.

Editorial note: Bruxlab B.V. will exhibit at the Dentistry Show in Birmingham at Stand N12.

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