Tooth Wear in Patients Undergoing Sleep Studies: A Blinded Observational Study

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common health problem that remains an underdiagnosed issue. Screening tools and clinical markers are needed from a variety of providers to determine patients at risk for OSA. Tooth wear could be a good potential identifier of patients at risk of having OSA.

This is an ambidirectional observational cohort. Participants were identified as retrospectively having undergone a sleep study and then tooth wear data was prospectively collected at patients' annual dental exam. The participants also completed an anonymous questionnaire to determine correlations with possible confounding factors.

A total of 107 individuals were included in the analyses. No significant differences in wear were found between participants with an Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI) less than 5 and those with AHI ≥ 5 for any of the teeth examined (all P > 0.05). Overall, both groups had median tooth wear scores of 2 (IQR 1). Similarly, no differences in tooth wear were found between participants based on their body mass index (BMI) classification or consumption data (all P > 0.05).

Sleep is a complicated entity with many possible confounding factors. There is no correlation between AHI and tooth wear in the selected military cohort. Dentists should screen patients for possible medical and dental conditions whenever tooth wear is detected. Further research is needed to determine if tooth wear could be used as a potential identifier of patients at risk for OSA.