Airway – Dentistry’s Elephant in the Room – PDP033

At Dental School I was taught that we have 2 opportunities as clinicians to save a patient's life. One was mouth cancer diagnosis (obviously) and the other was a patient with GORD who may develop Barrett's Oesophagus. However, as I look back now, I do believe dental school missed something out….and that is Sleep Disordered Breathing (SDB). There is no formal acknowledgement of Airway in the dental curriculum. https://youtu.be/TKiX-J046JA Full Episode on the YouTube channel and soon to be on Dentinal Tubules for 1 hour of Enhanced CPD/CE Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below! What you will learn from this episode with a leader in this field Prof Ama Johal is that a team approach is needed. If the Sleep Physician is Team Leader, we as Dentists are SECOND in the pecking order, above ENT! That signifies the massive role we have to play in treating SDB. We discuss: How and why did Prof Ama Johal get in to this micro-niche of Airway within Dentistry Brief overview of anatomy with the 'party balloon' analogy What is Dental sleep medicine? What is sleep disordered breathing and sleep apnoea What is the contribution we can make in the dental profession? Is it just mandibular advancement splints? What is a CPAP What is the effectiveness or oral appliances vs CPAP? Why is the training at undergraduate level in both MEDICINE and DENTISTRY lacking? What are the barriers to Dentists who want to help patients with Sleep disordered breathing? How can we significantly improve the lives of some of our patients? What is the association between parafunction and sleep disordered breathing Should YOU get involved in treating the airway for your dental patients? Does premolar extraction orthodontics adversely affect the airway? What about children with massive tonsils/adenoids causing airway obstruction? Prof Ama Johal is highly regarded within Orthodontics and dentistry, for the standard of his clinical work and published research. He is the Vice President of the British Society of Dental Sleep Medicine (BSDSM) and Professor at Bart’s and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. Resources and Downloads: British Society of Dental Sleep Medicine S4S Course Snoring & Obstructive Sleep Apnoea - a Role for the GDP - listeners of the podcast can get 50% until the end of August 2020 - use coupon code ME50 (this is not an affiliate link and I do not get commission from this - I am thankful to S4S for offering this to the community) Click below for full episode transcript: Opening Snippet: Hey guys, it's Jaz here and welcome to Episode 33 of the Protrusive Dental podcast. We're talking about airway. Jaz’s Introduction: Now airway for me what I think is that in dentistry, it really is the elephant in the room like we qualify from dental school, and this mammoth topic of airway and how relevant it is to dentistry. I mean, come on, we’re looking down the mouth, we’ve got a huge view of the airway. And it’s something that’s completely neglected in dental education. But the more I sort of delve deeper into this, it’s actually neglected in medical education as well. But it was taught turning that around slowly. So that me and Prof Ama Johal, who’s the guest today.We’re thinking that perhaps in 10 years time, it’s going to have its rightful place near towards the top of what we learned at Dental and medical school for that fact. So we’re talking about what is the elephant in the room and it’s airway. The way that I got into airway in my journey is something I discussed with Prof Ama Johal was when I was a DCT1 at Guy’s Hospital, I’d have like this one clinic like every two weeks, where I’d be making these mandibular repositioning appliances, and they were like, it’s like a soft splint for a top, a soft splint for the bottom and this sort of glue together with a mandible in a slightly protruded position or what Prof Ama Johal describes a very much as a first...