Growth & Development
Omer Hillel, DDS
Pediatric Dental resident
Montefiore Medical Center
Montefiore Medical Center
New York, New York, United States
Alice Lee, DDS
Associate Director/Assistant Professor
Montefiore Medical Center (Bronx, NY)
Bronx, New York, United States
Grace Chin, DDS
Attending
Montefiore Health Systems
Bronx, Ny, New York, United States
Purpose: The goals of this study are to determine 1) The most common screening tool utilized by pediatric dentists to screen for SDB/OSA; and 2) The most common solution offered to patients with SDB/OSA.
Methods: The study was conducted as a cross-sectional national survey. An 11-question survey was sent out via email to active American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) members via Survey Monkey. Data collection occurred over a 2 month period from February 2023-March 2023.
Results: The survey was sent out to 6,654 active members of the AAPD. Two hundred and thirteen members voluntarily took the survey (3.2% response rate). Of these respondents, 211 were actively practicing dentists. The descriptive data was analyzed to determine the most common screening approaches utilized for sleep disordered breathing / obstructive sleep apnea (SDB/OSA) and the most common solutions offered by active U.S. pediatric dentists.
Conclusions: 1) The most common screening tool utilized by pediatric dentists to screen for SDB/OSA is verbal questioning. 2) The common signs and symptoms of SDB/OSA screened for by pediatric dentists are snoring, gasping, or pauses in breathing while sleeping, mouth breathing, and Malampati and Brodsky score. 3) The most common referral for sleep breathing abnormalities is to ENT. 4) The most common solution offered to patients with SDB/OSA is frenectomy.