Objectives: In order to clarify the appearance phase of sleep apnea in TMD patients the sleep apnea and bruxism of healthy subjects and TMD patients during sleep at night were analyzed. Methods: Twenty healthy subjects and 20 TMD patients, all females in their twenties were selected. Using a wireless telemeter system, the EEG, EOG, ECG, masseter EMG, mental EMG and respirogram were recorded simultaneously throughout the night. First the frequency of sleep apnea and the frequency of bruxism were compared between the healthy group and the patient group. Next the relationship between the frequency of sleep apnea and the frequency of bruxism was investigated. Sleep apnea was defined as cessation of respiration for over 10 seconds and bruxism was defined as those bursts that lasted more than 5 seconds or the burst between two bursts that was less than 5 seconds apart and the muscular activities were larger than the swallowing activities recorded prior to sleep. Results: Both the frequency of sleep apnea and the frequency of bruxism were larger for the patient group (bruxism : 8.2n/h, apnea : 1.6n/h) than for the healthy group (bruxism : 5.5n/h, apnea : 0.3n/h) and a significant difference was found between the two. There was no correlation between the frequency of sleep apnea and the frequency of bruxism in the healthy group, but for the patient group, when the frequency of bruxism increased the frequency of sleep apnea also increased and there was a positive correlation between the two (y=0.00187x^3.12, R=0.809, p<0.01, s.). Conclusions: From these results it was concluded that sleep apnea was intimately connected to bruxism and in TMD patient with high frequency of bruxism attention should be paid to the possibility of sleep apnea.

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