The widespread prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea and apneic snoring is both alarming and well documented. Sleep disorders affect one out of ive Americans. Yet, during an attempt to study the prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea and snoring among patients at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Dentistry, a search through the entire school's database for the terms "sleep apnea" and "snoring" found only ninety-two patients who admitted to snoring. Currently, the condition "sleep apnea" is not even on the school's list of health/medical questions. These igures not only are inconsistent with national statistics, but conirm that more needs to be done to make dental students aware of these disorders, include them in patient medical histories, and ultimately educate patients about therapies that can help. Considering the health concerns related to this sleep disorder, the economic impact of insomnia and daytime sleepiness, as well as the fact that the dentist is well poised to reduce symptoms and increase the quality of life among sufferers, mandibular advancement devices should become an educational standard in the predoctoral clinical curriculum of dental schools. Predoctoral clinical curricula need to relect this current health trend and train dentists to care for these patients comprehensively.
A 2011 study at one U.S. dental school found that patients were not routinely screened by dental students for obstructive sleep apnea and/or other related sleep disorders, nor were students being trained to screen. Consequently, the medical history questionnaire used in the clinic was updated to include ive speciic screening questions. The aim of this two-year follow-up study was to determine whether screening had improved at the school. A retrospective chart review of all patients (age 14-70+) in the third-and fourth-year dental clinics in 2012 and 2013 searched for "YES" responses to the ive questions. Of 5,931 patients, 38% reported they snore or were told they snore. By age 50-59, their reports of snoring increased to 50%. About 5% reported incidents waking up choking. By age 50, between one-ifth and one-quarter indicated they woke up frequently during the night. One in six frequently felt overly tired during the daytime, often falling asleep. This problem was evenly reported by all age groups between ages 30 and 69. About half the patients reporting sleep problems also had hypertension and cardiovascular problems with an equal distribution between males and females. The results showed that updating the medical history form had dramatically improved screening for sleep-disordered breathing by these dental students. Though screening is neither a deinitive diagnosis nor an attempt to distinguish among sleep disorders, the results correlate with national statistics. Screening is an important step to increase student awareness of this serious health trend as it prepares students to engage more constructively in its management and referral.
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