Oro-facial pain experience among symphony orchestra musicians in Finland is associated with reported stress, sleep bruxism and disrupted sleep-Independent of the instrument group.

Background: To evaluate whether oro-facial pain experience was related to the type of musical instrument and to learn more about the roles of sleep and sleep-related issues in the pain among professional musicians.

Objectives: A standard questionnaire was sent to all Finnish symphony orchestras (n = 19), with altogether 1005 professional musicians and other personnel.

Methods: The questionnaire covered descriptive data, instrument group, items on perceived quality of sleep, possible sleep bruxism, stress experience and oro-facial pain experience during the past 30 days.

Results: In the present study, which included the musicians only, the response rate was 58.7% (n = 488). All orchestras participated in the study, and there was no significant difference in the response rate between the orchestras. The mean age of men (52.3%) was 47.7 (SD 10.3) and of women (47.7%) was 43.4 (SD 9.8) years (P < 0.001). Overall, current pain in the oro-facial area was reported by 28.9%, frequent bruxism by 12.1% and frequent stress by 20.8%. According to Somers' d, there were statistically significant but moderate correlations between overall pain reports in the oro-facial area and disrupted sleep (d = 0.127, P = 0.001), sleep bruxism (d = 0.241, P < 0.001) and stress experiences (d = 0.193, P < 0.001). Logistic regression revealed, independent of the instrument group (string, woodwind, brass wind, percussion), that current oro-facial pain experience was significantly associated with disrupted sleep (P = 0.001), frequent sleep bruxism (P < 0.001) and frequent stress (P = 0.002) experiences.

Conclusions: Among symphony orchestra musicians, oro-facial pain experience seems to be related to perceptions of stress, sleep bruxism and disrupted sleep rather than the instrument group.