Craniofacial, dental arch morphology, and characteristics in preschool children with mild obstructive sleep apnea

Yu-Hsuan Lee; Yu-Shu Huang; I-Chia Chen; Po-Yen Lin; Li-Chuan Chuang

doi:10.1016/j.jds.2019.09.005

Craniofacial, dental arch morphology, and characteristics in preschool children with mild obstructive sleep apnea

J Dent Sci. 2020 Jun;15(2):193-199. doi: 10.1016/j.jds.2019.09.005. Epub 2019 Nov 9.

Authors

Yu-Hsuan Lee¹, Yu-Shu Huang², I-Chia Chen², Po-Yen Lin³, Li-Chuan Chuang^{1

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Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
² Department of Child Psychiatry and Sleep Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
³ Department of Dentistry, School of Dentistry, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁴ Graduate Institute of Craniofacial and Dental Science, College of Medicine, Chang Gung, University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.

Abstract

Background/purpose: Pediatric obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) might be a serious cause of neurocognitive deficits, behavioral changes, and craniofacial disharmony in children at very young age with mild type of OSA. This study aims to examine the effect of mild OSA on craniofacial morphology as well as dental arch morphology and characteristics in preschool children.

Materials and methods: The test group comprised 16 preschool children (11 boys, 5 girls; mean age: 5.14 years old; mean AHI: 2.02) with confirmed polysomnographic diagnosis of mild OSA. Ten control subjects also underwent polysomnography (5 boys, 5 girls; mean age: 5.18 years old; median AHI: 0.43). Lateral cephalometric radiographs and dental arch impressions were obtained and measured. A survey on characteristics and quality of life (OSA-18) was filled out by study participants' caregivers.

Results: For craniofacial morphology, a significant increase in ANB angle, a decrease in SNB angle, and larger overjet size were seen in the group with mild OSA, compared with the control group. More frequent sleep disturbances and mood swing were also found in children with mild OSA, based on the OSA-18 assessment.

Conclusion: Preschool children with mild OSA present the following: skeletal Class II pattern with a more retrognathic mandible, increased overjet size, and more pronounced symptoms in the domains of sleep and emotion. Dental arch constriction is not a typical feature in our sample of Asian preschool children with mild OSA.

Keywords: Cephalometric analysis; Dental arch morphology; OSA-18; Obstructive sleep apnea; Preschool children.