Knowledge and Attitudes About Obstructive Sleep Apnea Among Dental Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Year 2025, , 60 - 64, 20.01.2025

Gülhan Yildirim Selin Gas

https://doi.org/10.17567/currresdentsci.1617436

Abstract

Objective: Dental sleep medicine is an increasingly recognized medical specialty, but obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) frequently progresses undetected. Dentists are often the first health-care professionals to assess signs and symptoms of OSA and therefore have a key role in OSA diagnosis. The purpose of the study was to assess the knowledge and attitudes about OSA among dental
students.
Methods: The OSA knowledge and attitude questionnaire was completed by dental students between April 2023 and June 2023. The questionnaire includes 18 knowledge and 5 attitude
items on OSA. Chi-square tests and Student’s t-tests were used to compare the differences between individual items and mean scores of the participants. Differences were considered significant
at P < .05.
Results: A total of 351 dental students participated in the study. The total knowledge scores of the students were poor with a mean knowledge score for all students of 51% (9.18 ± 2.89). While
67.6% of participants considered OSA to be of clinical importance, only 18.2% were confident in their ability to manage OSA.
Conclusion: There are some deficiencies in the OSA education provided to dental students. Additional courses on dental sleep medicine are needed, and relevant updates should be made to
the dentistry curriculum.
Keywords: Knowledge, attitude, dental education, dental student, obstructive sleep apnea

Keywords

Knowledge, attitude, dental education, dental student

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