How to Grow Dental Sleep Medicine adminJuly 28, 2023 Dental sleep medicine practitioner Aditi Desai, BDS, MSc, says there is rising awareness of obstructive sleep apnea in the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, the trajectory of Aditi Desai, BDS, MSc, turned to dental sleep medicine as she looked for ways to improve her dental patients’ experiences beyond “drilling and filling.” Similar to what’s happened in the United States, the United Kingdom (UK) has also experienced rising awareness and interest in dental sleep medicine. Desai points to a 2021 guideline published by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence specifically on obstructive sleep apnea as a sign of progress from a public health, provider education, and policy level.2 As the president of the British Society and Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, president of the odontology section of the Royal Society of Medicine, and as an advisory and board member at various sleep and respiratory technology organizations, Desai is no stranger to discussions about not only identifying OSA patients but also getting them to say yes to treatment. To get buy-in from patients, Desai stresses the importance of explaining the dentist’s role in the patient journey. But first, she actively listens to patients’ descriptions of their sleeping woes. “Talking and explaining my role in the patient’s journey by discussing and ensuring that the patient understands the risks of OSA, various options available, including how oral appliance therapy works, the mechanics behind it, the benefits and complications, etc, can help the patient gain confidence that their dentist isn’t just taking impressions or scans so they can sell a device but that their interest is backed by education,” Desai says. Desai also says that global awareness of the role of oral health providers in sleep medicine, increasing collaborations among providers to treat OSA, developing a better educational model for training qualified sleep medicine-focused dentists, and nurturing mentorship and partnerships among dentists and physicians are all critical components for progress. Should Education for Dentists Include Sleep? A team of researchers from the Tufts University School of Dental Medicine surveyed dental schools in the United States and Canada. They found that despite dental sleep medicine being a growing field, less than half (12 of the 27 schools that responded) had a dental sleep medicine clinic, and 33% reported challenges in integrating sleep medicine with other existing programs.3 Mark Murphy, DDS, lead faculty of clinical education at Prosomnus Sleep Technologies and a director of dental sleep medicine at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Dentistry, agrees with the findings that there’s a great need from a curriculum level to expose soon-to-be dentists to concepts in dental sleep medicine. “If you’re not trained, tested, or even exposed to dental sleep medicine, then it’s not surprising that dental sleep medicine doesn’t seem important to the student who just graduated,” says Murphy, who was not involved in the survey. “One big challenge is to broaden the exposure of sleep medicine to dental students early on.” Yoona Ha is a freelance writer and healthcare public relations professional. References National Center for Health Statistics , National Health Interview Survey. 2020. Available at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/EarlyRelease202108-508.pdf NICE Guideline [NG202]: Obstructive sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome and obesity hypoventilation syndrome in over 16s. 20 Aug 2021. Available at https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng202 Karimi N, Mehta N, Pagni SE, et al. The current state of dental sleep medicine practice in academic institutions: a questionnaire-based study. JDSM. 2019;6(4). Illustration 20282706 © Beaniebeagle | Dreamstime.com
