Association between Sleep Quality and Perceived Oral Health among Adolescents: Analysis of the 2024 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey

Background: This study examined adolescent sleep satisfaction and its association with oral health. Methods: This study analyzed data from the 20th Youth Health Behavior Online Survey (2024), ultimately including 54,653 adolescents. Subjective oral symptoms were defined as tooth pain when consuming hot or cold foods or beverages, aching or throbbing tooth pain, and gum pain or bleeding within the past 12 months. Sleep-based fatigue recovery was assessed based on self-reported responses regarding the extent to which sleep during the past 7 days was sufficient to recover from fatigue. A complex sample design with weights, stratification, and clustering variables was used for analysis. Results: Female students, high school students, adolescents with lower parental education, and those reporting lower subjective economic status and academic performance were more likely to report insufficient sleep-related recovery and to experience oral symptoms (p＜0.05). Insufficient sleep-related recovery was significantly associated with a higher likelihood of experiencing oral symptoms (odds ratio=1.538; 95% confidence interval: 1.471∼1.608). Conclusion: Insufficient sleep is significantly associated with oral symptoms in adolescents. To improve oral health, interventions should address sleep-related breathing disorders and strengthen tobacco control strategies, while implementing programs to promote healthy sleep habits alongside existing oral health education.