• Daniel Marciuc, Stefan Morarasu, Bianca Codrina Morarasu, Emilia Adriana Marciuc, Bogdan Ionut Dobrovat, Veronica Pintiliciuc-Serban, Roxana Mihaela Popescu, Florinel Cosmin Bida, Valentin Munteanu, and Danisia Haba.
• Surgery Department, Faculty of Dental Medicine, "Grigore T. Popa" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 700115 Iasi, Romania.
• Medicina (Kaunas). 2023 Aug 10; 59 (8).

AbstractBackground and objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in children is a debilitating disease, difficult to treat. Dental appliances have been proposed as a valid therapy for improving functional outcomes with good compliance rates. Herein, we aimed to perform a meta-analysis comparing clinical outcomes between OSA children treated with dental appliances versus controls. Materials Methods: The study was registered with PROSPERO. A systematic search was performed for all comparative studies examining outcomes in pediatric patients who underwent treatment of OSA with oral appliances versus controls. Data was extracted and analyzed using a random effects model via Rev Man 5.3. Results: Six studies including 180 patients were analyzed split into two groups: patients treated with dental appliances (n = 123) and the controls (n = 119). Therapy with dental appliances was shown to significantly improve the apnea-hypopnea index (p = 0.009) and enlarge the superior posterior airway space (p = 0.02). Maxilla-to-mandible measurements were not significantly different between the two groups, nor was the mean SO2 (p = 0.80). Conclusions: This is the most updated meta-analysis assessing the role of dental appliances for OSA in children; it shows that such devices can improve functional outcomes by decreasing the apnea-hypopnea index.

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