Statement of problem

Various factors are responsible for sleep bruxism; however, whether the dopaminergic agonist group of drugs is effective in the treatment of sleep bruxism is unclear.

Purpose

The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate the effect of the dopaminergic agonist group of drugs in controlling sleep bruxism in comparison with no treatment or placebo-controlled treatment.

Material and methods

Two electronic databases, PubMed and Cochrane Central, were searched by using the keywords bruxism, sleep bruxism, dopamine, and dopamine agonist. After screening titles and abstracts, only those articles which met predefined inclusion criteria were selected for full-text assessment. Clinical trials using the dopaminergic agonist group of drugs as a treatment approach to sleep bruxism were included.

Results

The literature search yielded a total of 64 articles from the 2 electronic databases (PubMed, 53; Cochrane Central, 11). After removal of the duplicates (n=8), the initial screening of titles and abstracts was performed by 2 independent reviewers, removing 46 articles. A total of 10 articles were selected for full-text reading, and 4 studies were included for qualitative analysis.

Conclusions

Levodopa (L-DOPA) and Bromocriptine showed decrease in root mean square value in electromyography per bruxism burst (P<.001) and 20% to 30% reduction of bruxism episodes during sleep in 2 different studies. However, treatment with bromocriptine led to conflicting result in another study in terms of frequency of bruxism episodes and amplitude of muscle contractions in electromyography (EMG). Bruxism bursts and episodes were also not significantly improved with another dopaminergic agonist group of drugs, Pramipexole (P>.001). Based on the limited evidence and conflicting results, significant conclusions cannot be generated, and further studies are required.