RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the levels of salivary cortisol in adults and children diagnosed with bruxism. METHODS: A search strategy was developed using the following terms: "cortisol", "bruxism" and "sleep bruxism". These were searched in databases: Medline, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane, Web of Science, LILACS and gray literature, for studies published until May 2020. RESULTS: We obtained a total of six primary studies, involving 854 participants, who met the criteria and were included in the present study. The analysis cortisol levels shows a significant difference favourable to the control group 1.10 (95% CI: 0.68-1.53), showing that patients with bruxism have higher values of salivary cortisol. Heterogeneity of I²â¯=â¯4% (Pâ¯=â¯.31). CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that despite the different methodologies adopted for the collection and analysis of salivary content, this review found significant results of higher levels of salivary cortisol in adult patients with bruxism.