Conhecimentos, opiniões e prática clínica de médicos e médicos dentistas relativamente à Síndrome da Apneia Obstrutiva do Sono e à roncopatia

Introduction: Dental Sleep Medicine focuses on the use of oral appliances for the treatment of snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) under a multidisciplinary approach. Objective: Analyse the knowledge, opinions, and practice on the diagnosis and treatment of these disorders under a multidisciplinary approach. Methods and Materials: For this descriptive, observational, and cross-sectional study, was carried out a structured questionnaire in Portuguese and translated into Spanish and English. The questionnaire was distributed to physicians and dentists in paper format and disseminated through the Google Forms® online platform. The data were recorded in a database (Microsoft Excel®). Later the data were treated statistically using SPSS®. In all statistical analyses, a p-value of < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: A total of 415 (98.6%) completed questionnaires were validated: 56.9% were from dentists, and 43.1% were from physicians. The majority of physicians and dentists have an adequate basic knowledge about the topic. When physicians needed to treat snoring and OSAS, 81.3% chose positive airway pressure, and 96.7% of the dentists chose mandibular advancement devices (p < 0.0005). 76.5% of the physicians and 28.0% of the dentists agree or strongly agree that the academic training they have is sufficient to treat these disorders (p < 0.0005). 17.9% of the physicians and 54.2% of the dentists agree or strongly agree that dentists can detect, diagnose, and/or treat snoring and OSAS (p < 0.0005). Conclusions: Despite the significant developments in the last decades, we have found a need to improve the multidisciplinary approach, for more efficient detection and adequate treatment planning for patients. These professionals reported adequate basic knowledge, but they didn't report enough confidence to treat these disorders. Thus, development of additional training should be considered in order to overcome the examined barriers. We found that treatment options for these conditions are different amongst those