Knowledge level of dental practitioners about obstructive sleep apnea

Yakup Kantaci; Sedef Kotanli; Ibrahim Halil Tepe

doi:10.5281/zenodo.7562367

Authors

Yakup Kantaci Harran University, Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Prosthodontics, Sanliurfa, Turkey https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0602-5212
Sedef Kotanli Harran University, Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Sanliurfa, Turkey https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0827-0991
Ibrahim Halil Tepe Adiyaman University, Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Prosthodontics, Adiyaman, Turkey https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7447-9363

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7562367

Keywords:

Dentistry education, obstructive sleep apnea, oral appliances

Abstract

Objective: The importance of dentists in detecting and treating sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and snoring is increasing daily. Therefore, dentists should have a good command of the clinical findings of OSA patients and should be included in the OSA treatment protocol when necessary. This study aims to measure dentists' level of knowledge about the diagnosis and treatment of OSA.

Materials and methods: A questionnaire was prepared using Google Forms WhatsApp to dentists in the 23-70 age range in Turkey, email and sent via Instagram and private social platforms like Facebook. The first part of the questionnaire contained basic questions providing demographic data, and the second part included questions about OSA. The data obtained were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science version 23.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).

Results: A total of 584 dentists, 272 males, and 312 females, with a mean age of 29.45±5.88, participated in the survey. OSA knowledge scores of males were calculated as 11.87±4.65 and 12.20±4.23 for females. When the knowledge scores of 228 specialist dentists and 356 practitioners who participated in our study were compared, a statistically significant difference was found (p<0.05). It was determined that 30 (5.1%) of 584 participants had an ESS score of 11 or higher. It was concluded that 23.8% of the participants were overweight, and 7.5% were obese. No significant correlation was found between ESS scores and BMI values (p>0.05).

Conclusions: Although dentists do not have enough information about OSA diagnosis and treatment, they want to improve themselves on this issue. The dental education curriculum in Turkey is not sufficient for OSA. In light of our study, the dentistry curriculum can be updated and complementary training can be organized for graduate physicians.

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