COVID-19 and dental sleep medicine: risks, precautions and patient guidance.

COVID-19 is the offcial name for the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, which has become a pandemic, infecting more than 5 million people worldwide. Transmission occurs by inhaling droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes or exhales, or by touching contaminated surfaces and then rubbing their hands over their eyes, nose or mouth. Some infected people become seriously ill, while others have no symptoms, but even though they are asymptomatic, they can still transmit the virus.

Obstructive sleep apnea prevents the expected difference in craniofacial growth of boys and girls.

Objectives: It was to compare cephalometric measures of mouth-breather boys and girls and with the cephalometric pattern observed in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) patients.

Methods: Craniofacial measurements of lateral cephalometric radiographs obtained from 144 children aged 7-14 years were compared between boys and girls, and both were compared to cephalometric pattern of OSAS patients.

Results: Mouth-breather boys and girls had no gender differences regarding to craniofacial morphology while nose-breather boys and girls showed those expected differences.

Polysomnographic findings are associated with cephalometric measurements in mouth-breathing children.

Objectives: Children with adenotonsillar hypertrophy and those with an abnormal craniofacial morphology are predisposed to having sleep disordered breathing; many of these children are mouth breathers. The aim of this study was to determine whether an association exists between polysomnographic findings and cephalometric measures in mouth-breathing children.

Methods: Twenty-seven children (15 mouth-breathing children and 12 nose-breathing children [control subjects]), aged 7 to 14 years, took part in the study.

Mouth breathing children have cephalometric patterns similar to those of adult patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.

Objective: To determine whether mouth breathing children present the same cephalometric patterns as patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS).

Method: Cephalometric variables were traced and measured on vertical lateral cephalometric radiographs. The cephalometric measurements of 52 mouth and 90 nose breathing children were compared with apneic patients.

Titratable mandibular repositioner appliances for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome: are they an option?

Mandibular repositioning appliances (tMRAs) designed with a titratable mechanism are effective to treat obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) but are not widely used, although many studies have proven their value. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of tMRAs in the treatment of OSAS on the criteria of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM; apnea/hypopnea index [AHI] < 5). Three hundred consecutive patients with a polysomnographic diagnosis of OSAS were referred for treatment with tMRAs between 2000 and 2003.

Clinical co-morbidities in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome treated with mandibular repositioning appliance.

Introduction: Intraoral mandibular repositioner appliances (IOMRAs) are designed to enlarge pharyngeal airway space advancing the mandible and increasing genioglossus tone during sleep. Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) treatment with IOMRAs is beneficial, but there is a lack of studies in the literature defining the target population more inclined to respond to this treatment.

Methods: We contacted by telephone 188 previously treated patients with IOMRA, detecting 20 not improved patients (Study Group).