Publications by authors named "Alessandro Bracci"

Background: Vertigo is a common symptom in people with acute stroke, leading to difficulty in the diagnostic process. This study aims to systematically report the accuracy of the video head impulse test (vHIT) for diagnosing stroke in individuals presenting to emergency departments with acute vertigo.

Methods: Data from MEDLINE, CENTRAL, CINAHL, SCOPUS, and gray literature were searched from inception to July 2024 without language limits.

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Background: Awake bruxism (AB) is characterised by repetitive jaw muscle activity during wakefulness and is influenced by various stressors. Objective To investigate the effect of national stress (war) on AB muscle behaviours in young adults, the study was planned as a repeated cross-sectional study.

Methods: Two groups were compared: one during peaceful times (no-national stress group, NoNS; n = 106, 63% female, age 25.

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Background: Bruxism is receiving increasing attention from both clinicians and researchers over the past decades. Recently, it has become clear that some aspects of the currently proposed, expert-driven bruxism definitions raise questions and cause confusion among clinicians, researchers, educators and patients.

Objectives: The aim of this report is threefold: (1) to provide the reader with a glossary of the existing definitions, (2) to discuss frequently asked questions regarding these definitions and (3) to suggest a road map for the next steps to be taken towards a better understanding of bruxism.

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Background: The evolution of concepts that have featured the last decade in the field of bruxism led to the necessity of providing clinicians and researchers with adequate tools for the assessment of bruxism, such as the Standardized Tool for the Assessment of Bruxism (STAB) and the BruxScreen. The former is a multidimensional evaluation tool for the evaluation of bruxism status, while the latter is an instrument that could potentially find its applicability in large-scale epidemiological research projects for screening purposes. However, both tools lack the evaluation of orofacial symptoms at awakening, which can be predictive of temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) pain intensity and prognosis.

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Objective: The aim of the present study is to get deeper into the complex interplay that might exist between awake bruxism (AB), tobacco smoking, and anxiety and/or depression symptoms in a group of healthy young adults.

Materials And Methods: The study participants were recruited by advertising the investigation at the University of Siena, Siena, Italy. The inclusion criteria were being in good general health, without systemic diseases or oral diseases.

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Background: Despite the aetiology of awake bruxism (AB) being prevalently linked to psychological factors, several studies suggested that the use of certain substances, such as tobacco smoking, can contribute to the increase in masticatory muscle activities (MMA) during wakefulness.

Objective: The aim of this study is to assess whether there is a correlation between the frequency of awake bruxism behaviours and smoking habits.

Methods: Participants were recruited, without gender or ethnic restriction, at the University of Siena, Siena, Italy, by advertising.

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To assess the correlation between awake bruxism (AB) behaviors and psychological status in a group of healthy young adults. Participants were recruited at the University of Siena, Siena, Italy, by advertising the initiative. The reported frequency of AB behaviors was evaluated through the Oral Behavior Checklist (OBC).

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Objectives: In recent years, a smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) approach for assessing awake bruxism (AB) has attracted growing interest, both in clinical and research settings. The present study was designed to investigate subjects' experience using an EMA-based smartphone application to detect factors that could hamper or facilitate its use for clinical and research purposes.

Materials And Methods: Thirty-two patients with temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) pain (14 males, 18 females; mean age 28.

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Article Synopsis
  • * One hundred healthy young adults participated, with the EMA assessing behaviors like teeth clenching and grinding more accurately than the OBC questionnaire.
  • * Results indicated a weak-to-moderate correlation between the two methods, with mandible bracing correlating more strongly than teeth grinding, highlighting the OBC as a quick screening tool and EMA as a more detailed approach.
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Background: Recently, the Standardised Tool for the Assessment of Bruxism (STAB) has been developed for use in clinical and research settings.

Objectives: The aim of the present study is to describe the process of forward and back translation and pilot testing of the STAB into Italian.

Methods: The English version of the STAB was adopted as a template for translation into other languages, according to a step-by-step procedure led by the expert STAB bruxism panel and mother tongue experts in the field.

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Article Synopsis
  • A smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) method was used to collect data on awake bruxism (AB) behaviors from 77 young adults over a six-month period.
  • The study found that most individuals reported a consistent frequency of relaxed jaw muscles, while teeth contact and mandible bracing were the most common AB behaviors observed.
  • The results indicated that AB behaviors showed moderate variability day-to-day, with no significant differences over the study periods and no gender differences, suggesting a stable frequency of AB behaviors among healthy individuals.
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Objective: To present a list of key points for good Temporomandibular Disorders (TMDs) clinical practice on behalf of the International Network for Orofacial Pain and Related Disorders Methodology (INfORM) group of the International Association for Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research (IADR).

Methods: An open working group discussion was held at the IADR General Session in New Orleans (March 2024), where members of the INfORM group finalized the proposal of a list of 10 key points.

Results: The key points covered knowledge on the etiology, diagnosis, and treatment.

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Background: The demand for orthodontic treatment with aligners has recently increased, but their effects on awake bruxism (AB) behaviours have to be evaluated yet.

Objectives: This investigation assessed if aligners can affect oral behaviours (i.e.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study aimed to examine how often undergraduate dentistry students engage in awake bruxism (AB) behaviors and whether these behaviors relate to anxiety and depression levels.
  • - Researchers used a smartphone app to track five different oral behaviors and assessed anxiety and depression through a specific questionnaire.
  • - Results showed significant differences in most AB behaviors linked to anxiety and depression, indicating that mental health status can influence these oral habits.
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Objective: The Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) concept was the basis for developing a smartphone application for the real-time report of awake bruxism (AB) activities. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of the EMA with a randomised controlled trial designed to compare the frequency of AB reported in two separate single observation points between a group of students monitored over time with an EMA smartphone application and a non-EMA monitored group.

Methods: Sixty-four (N = 64) dental students (22.

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Imaging disdrometers are widely used in field campaigns to provide information on the shape of hydrometeors, together with the diameter and the fall velocity, which can be used to derive information on the shape-size relations of hydrometeors. However, due to their higher price compared to laser disdrometers, their use is limited to scientific research purposes. The 3D stereo (3DS) is a commercial imaging disdrometer recently made available by Thies Clima and on which there are currently no scientific studies in the literature.

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Objectives: To assess the confidence in the results of systematic reviews on the effectiveness of physiotherapy for musculoskeletal conditions in the past 10 years and to analyze trends and factors associated.

Methods: This is a metaepidemiological study on systematic reviews (SRs) with meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). MEDLINE, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CINAHL, and PEDro were searched for SRs of RCT on physiotherapy interventions for musculoskeletal disorders from December 2012 to December 2022.

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Article Synopsis
  • The Standardized Tool for the Assessment of Bruxism (STAB) and BruxScreen have been created for research and clinical assessments of bruxism.* ! -
  • The study aims to ensure effective global use of these tools by developing a 12-step guideline for their translation and cultural adaptation.* ! -
  • A translation log and a guidance website for translation teams are provided, leading to new language versions that can be tested and used in various settings.* !
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Clouds cover substantial parts of the Earth's surface and they are one of the most essential components of the global climate system impacting the Earth's radiation balance as well as the water cycle redistributing water around the globe as precipitation. Therefore, continuous observation of clouds is of primary interest in climate and hydrological studies. This work documents the first efforts in Italy in remote sensing clouds and precipitation using a combination of K- and W-band (24 and 94 GHz, respectively) radar profilers.

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Background: Together with psychosocial and hereditary factors, bruxism is a possible risk factor for orofacial pain. Bruxism is defined as a masticatory muscle activity characterized by repetitive or sustained tooth contact, or by bracing or thrusting of the mandible. A smartphone application to report awake bruxism (AB) has been developed and translated into more than 25 languages.

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Background: With time, due to the poor knowledge on it epidemiology, the need to focus on awake bruxism as a complement of sleep studies emerged.

Objective: In line with a similar recent proposal for sleep bruxism (SB), defining clinically oriented research routes to implement knowledge on awake bruxism (AB) metrics is important for an enhanced comprehension of the full bruxism spectrum, that is better assessment and more efficient management.

Methods: We summarised current strategies for AB assessment and proposed a research route for improving its metrics.

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Background: Bruxism is a masticatory muscle activity occurring during sleep or wakefulness, involving grinding and clenching of teeth and/or jaw bracing. As yet, the aetiology, epidemiology and consequences of awake bruxism (AB) are largely unknown.

Objectives: The aims of the study were to AB behaviours using a novel bruxism screener (BruxScreen) questionnaire part and Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA; BruxApp©) on AB behaviours, and to investigate AB's prevalence among masticatory muscle myalgia patients and non-patients.

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Background: The recent introduction of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) smartphone-based strategies has allowed achieving some interesting data on the frequency of different awake bruxism (AB) behaviors reported by an individual in the natural environment.

Objective: The present paper aims to review the literature on the reported frequency of AB based on data gathered via smartphone EMA technology.

Methods: On September 2022, a systematic search in the Pubmed, Scopus and Google Scholar databases was performed to identify all peer-reviewed English-language studies assessing awake bruxism behaviors using a smartphone-based Ecological Momentary Assessment.

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Background: To assess awake and sleep bruxism, the Standardised Tool for the Assessment of Bruxism (STAB) is currently being developed. The STAB will be a comprehensive tool for the detailed assessment of bruxism behaviour itself as well as of its possible consequences, causes, and comorbid conditions.

Objective: Since the STAB cannot fully meet the 'A4 principle' for a bruxism assessment tool, i.

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Synopsis of recent research by authors named "Alessandro Bracci"

  • - Alessandro Bracci's recent research focuses significantly on bruxism, particularly the development and adaptation of the Standardised Tool for the Assessment of Bruxism (STAB) for clinical and research utility in Italy, alongside investigating self-reported awake bruxism behaviors in various populations.
  • - His studies employ innovative methodologies such as smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to capture real-time data on bruxism behaviors, correlating these with psychological factors like anxiety and depression among young adults.
  • - Additionally, Bracci has contributed to broader topics in dental and clinical practice, including guidelines for temporomandibular disorders and the evaluation of various assessment tools in the management of oral health issues, reflecting a comprehensive approach to healthcare research.