West Coast University Bruxism in Nursing Students Paper

I just need you to read the report and write a conclusion that is about one page long.

Abstract
Stress has become a part of one’s life, which results in development of depression and anxiety.
This psychological stress is generally thought to have a negative effect on periodontal health.
The aim of this project was to determine the effect of stress on periodontal health among the
nursing students. A 7- item pre-questionnaire survey designed to measure the severity of a range
of symptoms. The validated questionnaire was distributed among 19 undergraduate nursing
students of a West Los Angeles College. Followed by parafunctional habits such as grinding,
clenching, bruxism, any issues on TMJ, and stress level were assessed. Also A 5-items postquestionnaire survey designed to measure the effect of methods provided to reduce stress and
bruxism. The results obtained from the survey were tabulated, analyzed and represented. Out of
19 students only 14 students were responded, 80% of students stated that they have more
knowledge about stress reduction now, 40% are now considering to ask their dentist for a night
guard, 30% state that they found our recommendation helpful, and 38% state that they already
were using some of the recommendations we made to reduce stress. The association between
stress and periodontal parameters was found to be statistically significant. The present project
suggests that nursing students with extremely severe levels of depression, anxiety and stress are
presented with increased bruxism. Therefore, psychological factors have an adverse effect on
periodontal health.
As part of our assessment, we will focus our efforts on West Los Angeles College
nursing students as they may present with parafunctional habits brought on by stress from their
educational careers. Data collected via Google forms pre-presentation surveys states a varied age
group, ethnicities and mostly English spoken in their homes. The results assisted us in assessing
our audience within the responses we received. The outcome was majority, or 68% of the
students were between the ages of 20-30 years of age, 16.7% 31-41 years old and 16.7% 40 years
old and older. The ethnicity of the students ranged from 54.5% Hispanic, 27.3% Asian and
18.2% African American. The results for languages spoken at home were 83.4% English, and
8.3% for Hindi and Spanish both. Questions asking the students about their temporomandibular
(TMJ) health, presence of parafunctional habits, and stress levels due to being a nursing student
in college were evaluated. Questions asked to the nursing students were gathered such as if they
experience any soreness or discomfort in the jaw and at least 25% said yes. This may be a habit
that many people are not aware of. As far as current bruxism habits are concerned, the responses
gave us the results that about 16.7% of the students had grinding in the evening, 8.3% answered
yes to both the morning and evening, while 75% did not know. A stress scale was asked to the
audience on scale of 0-10 with 10 being the highest, it was noted that a stress level between 6-8
was at least 25%, with a stress level scale at 10 was 16.6% and the lowest on the scale was 5,
with responses of 8.3%. Nursing students’ intense, stress induced educational careers may have
an impact on their oral health such as bruxism, inflicting trauma to hard and soft oral tissues. In
result bruxism may lead to abfraction, recession, sensitivity or even hairline fractures. The prepresentation survey also included the level of stress experienced. In Addition to direct oral
recommendations to prevent damage from bruxism, systemic preventative free or low cost
resources will also be provided such as; yoga, meditation and stress reduction/ management
techniques. State research findings found in the articles provided above. Unfortunately bruxism
is a parafunctional habit that occurs in 6-20% of the general population and it may be an
underlying, unconscious oral habit occurring in many individuals (Demjaha et al., 2019). The
ultimate goal for these nursing students is to reduce the amount of trauma being caused to the
oral cavity and provide recommendations, resources and techniques to combat stress induced
bruxism. Post op presentation assessment via Google forms will indicate their utilization of our
provided resources and if any positive outcomes in regards to reducing stress or bruxism had
occurred. The parafunctional habits of college students, especially nursing students, is one that
more information is needed on as stated by Dewald (2016), “What is not known are the dental
and oral health habits of college students and this needs to be determined by future research” (p.
26). We will compare our findings between our pre and post op surveys to conclude the
effectiveness in comparison to our initial goal for West Los Angeles nursing students.
To reduce the damage on the oral cavity it can be beneficial for the student nurses to
understand how stress can affect their oral health, participate in stress relieving activities, and
wear appliances such as occlusal guards to protect their oral cavity from damage. The cost of an
occlusal guard can range anywhere between $300-$1,500, making it a low priority for most
college students. Many colleges promote health for their college students by providing health
care but rarely is dental health included. Research has found that 83.8% of college students
utilize some form of financial aid. It was also noted that students attending a 2-year college were
less likely to have dental care than at a 4-year college and minority populations were also less
likely to visit a dentist compared to the Caucasian population at colleges. It was found that the
main reasons why college students did not visit a dentist were because they felt they had a
healthy mouth and did not feel like they needed care, the cost, and not having time to get to the
dentist (Dewald, 2016) . Learning these facts through research articles, our group determined it
could be valuable to educate the college nursing students at West Los Angeles College (WLAC)
on stress and how it could lead to damage to their oral cavity, how to prevent damage to their
oral cavity, and resources available to them.
For the planning portion of the project we planned to contact the instructor of the West
Los Angeles College Nursing program in order to schedule a day for us to come and do a
presentation in person or through zoom. Our plan was to bring awareness of the resources
available to nursing students with bruxism. We hope the methods learned from the resources
available will help these students with their stress levels in hopes of decreasing the damage they
experience due to bruxism. We planned to complete a pre and post survey during our
presentation to get their full attention and to compare and see if we brought about some change
and awareness. We prepared to allow enough time for the students to ask any questions they
may have. We provided all these resources to help the nursing students to reduce as much stress
as possible. Bringing awareness is very significant because most individuals do not even know
that they suffer from bruxism. Our plan of providing stress reducing techniques and addressing
the importance of visiting the dentist for a night guard will be very significant for our target
audience and we planned to emphasize that. We planned to provide images so the students can
have a visual of what we refer to. Lastly, we were prepared to send the instructor our powerpoint
presentation and any other information that can be useful for the nursing students to always refer
back to.
The implementation consisted of an intervention development design and its actual
conduction. The chosen intervention was a presentation designed to meet the nursing students’
needs via Zoom per convenience of the nursing students since their class was online. The
objective was to reduce stress that can induce bruxism. From our findings via the pre-survey,
nursing students might not be aware of what bruxism is, what consequences it can lead to or be
conscious that they are suffering from this condition. First and foremost, it was explained what
bruxism is and how hard and soft oral tissue can be affected by long term bruxism. Next we
provided free and low cost resources to help reduce stress, therefore reducing the possibility of
bruxism. Other valuable information shared were reasons why it is important to see a dental
professional regularly, use stress management techniques and free resources for students. As
stated previously, our goal was to teach the nursing students at West Los Angeles College
information about unconscious parafunctional habits such as bruxism and clenching related to
stress and help them manage. To help them visualize the effects, we provided images such as
abfraction, abrasion, recession and TMD. We emphasized the importance of a nightguard to
reduce tension caused by parafunctional habits on the dentition. Although their need at the
current time of the intervention, bruxism was not their highest priority as they were prepping for
their finals. We recognized this on the spot and adjusted our presentation implementation method
to be short and simple. Finally, we allotted time for Q&A after the intervention which they did
not take use of due to their lecture time strain.
Stress and anxiety not only harm our body, but they can also have a negative effect on
our periodontal health as well. The purpose of this project was to determine the level of stress
among nursing students and to see how much it correlates with their periodontal health.
Therefore, we gathered surveys before and after the presentation to 19 undergraduate nursing
students at West Los Angeles College. In our questionnaires, we assessed their level of anxiety
and their parafunctional habits, such as bruxism, grinding, and clenching. After all, information
was gathered from the responses 80% of students stated after the presentation they have more
knowledge about stress reduction techniques, 40% thought to ask their dentist about using a
nightguard, 30% stated the information presented to them was helpful, and 38% mentioned they
started some of the stress reduction methods. As a result, psychological factors such as stress and
anxiety, especially among students, can affect their periodontal health.