[Pediatric sleep-disordered breathing and oral medicine]

Pediatric sleep-disordered breathing, also known as obstructive sleep apnea and hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) in children, is caused by obstruction of upper airway, characterized by repetitive pauses in breathing during sleep despite the effort to breathe, and usually leads to reduction in oxygen saturation. Due to the importance of sufficient oxygen in growth and development, many children patients suffer from abnormal secretion of growth hormone at night, and also their activity and resting of cerebral cortex during sleep. Therefore, they face great risks in keeping normal physical growth, forming mental behavior, building up learning ability and shaping personalities. It is a very important interdisciplinary subject, yet still much remains unclear about the disease. Oral medicine is one of the subjects that show increasing importance in prevention and treatment of OSAHS in children. On one hand, due to the special means of the field, such as cephalometric, it can diagnose and monitor the development of craniofacial structures, especially the upper airway. On the other hand, it can provide treatments which can both improve breath during sleep and consequent dental facial deformities. Most typical treatments include mandibular sagittal growth stimulation, transverse maxillary palatal expansion and maxillary protraction. Oral medicine provides additional treatment apart from traditional adenectomy and tonsilectomy to improve ventilation. It not only directly helps to improve deformities caused by sleep-disordered breathing in OSAHS children with indications, but also helps to avoid many of physical and mental complications, which will in turn benefit their life quality. Also, it may prospectively provide insights in treatment and prevention of OSAHS in adults.