AVALIAÇÃO DE COMPORTAMENTOS ORAIS E ASPECTOS PSICOSSOCIAIS DE POLICIAIS FEDERAIS

Objective: To evaluate the oral behaviors and psychosocial aspects of adults belonging to the Federal Police class. Methods: An observational longitudinal study was conducted with 30 adult individuals from the special group of Federal Police from the city of Curitiba, Paraná. The median age of participants was 39.70 (± 7.35) years. Quality of life, anxiety and perceived stress were assessed using the SF-36, GAD-7 and PSS-14 questionnaires respectively. Awake bruxism was evaluated using the Ecological Momentary Assessment method with the WhatsApp mobile application. Messages were sent 15 times a day, seven days a week, between 9:00 am and 7:00 pm, at random times, to choose one of five oral behaviors: teeth contact, teeth clenching, teeth grinding, mandibular bracing, and relaxed jaw muscles. Cronbach's alpha test, Shapiro-Wilk’s test, Wilcoxon's non-parametric test for paired samples, Friedman's non-parametric test for paired samples, Spearman's non-parametric correlation test, and Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric test, followed by Dunn's 2–2 comparison test were employed. Results: The most frequent oral behaviors during the week were relaxed jaw muscles (49.75 ± 29.28), teeth contact (31.50 ± 24.71), mandibular bracing (10.42± 18.99), teeth clenching (6.82 ± 8.96), and teeth grinding (1.48 ± 3.04). Quality of life was considered excellent, anxiety was low, and there was no stress. There was no correlation between stress, anxiety and quality of life and awake bruxism. Conclusion: The federal police officers evaluated showed a high frequency of awake bruxism, but the psychosocial aspects were considered excellent.