Screening for obstructive sleep apnea by orthodontists in the United States - A survey study

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), a sleep-related breathing disorder that can affect both children and adults with systemic co-morbidities beyond disrupted sleep yet remains underdiagnosed in a substantial portion of the pediatric and adult orthodontic patient populations. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalance of orthodontists screening patients for OSA, their confidence level in screening, and to identify the various screening methods most commonly used in practice.

A survey on screening for OSA was emailed to 6,675 members of the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) in the United States. Frequency distribution of different responses and their association with various demographic factors was assessed.

Out of 234 orthodontists completing the survey, 62% reported screening all of their patients for OSA, while 38% reported doing no OSA screening at all. More hours of continuing education (CE) and younger ages were observed to be statistically significantly associated with practice of screening for OSA (p<0.001 and 0.034, respectively, on regression analysis). Role of longer practice duration observed to be significant on univariate analysis, lost its statistical significance on regression analysis.

CE hours on OSA seemed to be the most important factor that motivated the orthodontist to screen for OSA. A majority of orthodontists in the 35-54 year old age-group were screening their patients for OSA. Key words:Orthodontics, obstructive sleep apnea, screening, survey study.