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Dentofacial morphology in children with obstructive sleep apnea.

University of British Columbia

Objectives: Altered dentofacial morphology has been suggested as an etiology for childhood OSA. Nevertheless, existing reports on the dentofacial characteristics of children with OSA vary significantly and are limited by the infrequent use of polysomnography (PSG) for diagnosis. Therefore, the objective of this study is to establish the prevalence of dentofacial morphology in children with OSA diagnosed using PSG. Methods: The sample comprised 64 children between the ages of 4-16 who were referred to BC Children’s Hospital for PSG. Diagnosis of OSA was provided by an overnight, in-laboratory PSG. Malocclusion was assessed clinically by one orthodontist (K.L.), blinded to PSG results. Results: Children with previous orthodontic treatment were excluded and children with craniofacial syndromes were analyzed separately. The 17 patients with craniofacial syndromes presented a significantly different dentofacial features and higher prevalence of OSA when compared to the non-syndromic children. The remaining 39 patients were divided into an OSA group (AHI ≥ 2; n=17) and a non-OSA group (AHI < 2; n=22). There were no statistically significant differences in frequency of any dentofacial features between the two groups, although the OSA group had a lower prevalence of convex profile, Class II molar relationship, and overjet (OJ) ≥ 5mm. Subjects in the OSA group were further divided into a lower AHI (AHI between 2-5; n=9) group and a higher AHI group (AHI ≥ 5; n=8). There was no statistically significant difference in frequency of any dentofacial features between the three groups. Nevertheless, subjects in the higher AHI group had a lower prevalence of convex profile and poster crossbite, with less crowding and smaller OJ on average. Conclusions: In this patient population of 39 children between the ages of 4-16 who were referred to BCCH for an overnight sleep study, no statistically significant differences in dentofacial morphology and occlusal characteristics were found between children diagnosed with and without OSA. It is likely that children with OSA have a highly variable presentation of anatomical features, and future studies with a larger sample size and a true control group is needed to establish the dentofacial morphology of this population.

Text

2015-08-18

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/54507

Craniofacial Science

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/