Status of Sleep Apnea and Snoring Disorder Curriculum in U.S. Advanced Education Prosthodontic Programs

Purpose: To assess the management of sleep apnea and snoring disorders in Advanced Education Programs in Prosthodontics (AEPP) in the United States. Materials and Methods: A 51 item, online survey was sent to program directors at 48 AEPPs in the United States in 2015. Data results were analyzed descriptively. Results: Thirty-five program directors responded to the survey. Twenty-four (68.6%, N = 35) programs report not having a dedicated course for the treatment of sleep apnea and snoring disorders. The majority (94.3%) of programs chose to treat sleep disordered breathing with oral appliance therapy and 80.0% (N = 35) of programs utilize customized sleep apnea oral devices. However, only 48.6% (N = 35) and 51.4% (N = 35) of programs regularly address sleep apnea and snoring disorders at initial examination during the comprehensive exam and medical history questionnaire, respectively. Conclusions: The confidence interval for this survey is 8.71 at a confidence level of 95% due to a response rate of 72.9%. This confidence interval suggests there is responder bias in the survey results. Therefore, the results of this survey provide a suggestion of how sleep disorders are managed in AEPPs. Programs appear to be consistent among each other with regards to treatment modalities for sleep disordered breathing. The results suggest that patients are not screened enough to receive treatment addressing sleep disorders.