Alsaeed Suliman, Albalawi Farraj, Alghulikah Abdulrahman A, Aldakheel Ghadah, Alalola Bassam
Preventive Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh 14611, Saudi Arabia.
King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh 14611, Saudi Arabia.
Healthcare (Basel). 2022 Nov 6;10(11):2220. doi: 10.3390/healthcare10112220.
This study aimed to assess sleep medicine physicians' knowledge and attitudes toward the role of oral appliances (OAs) in managing obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in Saudi Arabia.
An online questionnaire was administered to the registered physicians practicing sleep medicine (otolaryngology, internal medicine, pulmonology, and family medicine) in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire included 26 questions under five domains. All the collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests.
One hundred sleep physicians (43% Saudi, 75% male) from Saudi Arabia participated in this study. Almost 43% of participants reported inadequate knowledge of the treatment of OSA patients using OAs. Half of the participants were unaware of how OAs work in managing OSA. Most physicians (62%) never referred the patient for treatment of OSA using OAs, whereas 4% referred at least one patient every month. The majority (60%) believed that there are barriers to referring a case for OA treatment, mainly the lack of knowledge of the suitable cases (60%) and the lack of qualified dentists in this area (43%).
Most sleep physicians reported poor knowledge of OA indications and mechanism of use, with most never referring a case for OA therapy.
本研究旨在评估沙特阿拉伯睡眠医学医生对口腔矫治器（OA）在治疗阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停（OSA）中作用的了解程度和态度。
对沙特阿拉伯注册从事睡眠医学（耳鼻喉科、内科、肺病科和家庭医学）的医生进行在线问卷调查。问卷包括五个领域的26个问题。所有收集的数据均采用描述性统计和卡方检验进行分析。
来自沙特阿拉伯的100名睡眠医生（43%为沙特人，75%为男性）参与了本研究。近43%的参与者表示对使用OA治疗OSA患者的知识了解不足。一半的参与者不知道OA如何治疗OSA。大多数医生（62%）从未将患者转诊接受OA治疗OSA，而4%的医生每月至少转诊一名患者。大多数人（60%）认为转诊病例接受OA治疗存在障碍，主要是缺乏对合适病例的了解（60%）以及该领域合格牙医的缺乏（43%）。
大多数睡眠医生报告对OA适应症和使用机制了解不足，大多数人从未转诊病例接受OA治疗。
