The interdisciplinary field of Sleep Medicine-time for dentists to sink their teeth into it!

Sleep Medicine has evolved into a highly multidisciplinary field over the last few decades, involving respiratory physicians, neurologists, cardiologists, ENT surgeons, psychiatrists and psychologists to name a few. It is within this highly multidisciplinary context that we have seen an increasing role for dentists in the recognition, diagnosis and management of select sleep disturbances and disorders. Over the last couple of decades, this growing role for dentists has seen the informal emergence of a new interdisciplinary field of Dental Sleep Medicine-a field that bridges medicine and dentistry as it pertains to the diagnosis and management of sleep disorders. This article describes this new field in terms of its history, the evolving scope of practice for dentists, the implications for education and training, and the importance of multidisciplinary care that optimises outcomes for patients.