Answer
Numerous commercially available oral (PO) appliances assist in bringing the lower jaw and tongue forward during sleep, thus improving obstructive sleep apnea. These devices are expensive, require special dental expertise, and are associated with frequent adverse effects such as jaw pain and temporal mandibular joint dysfunction. Small growing children are likely to outgrow appliances, necessitating refitting and replacement. In general, PO appliances have extremely limited usefulness, if any, in pediatric patients.
Go to Oral Appliances in Snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnea for complete information on this topic.
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Media Gallery
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Palate appearance following uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP) surgery.
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Example of an obstructive apnea and an obstructive hypopnea recorded during polysomnography.
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Medical complications associated with obstructive sleep apnea in children.
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Compressed overnight polysomnography tracing of a 6-year-old boy who snores, showing multiple events of obstructive apnea (green-shaded areas) associated with oxyhemoglobin desaturation (yellow-shaded areas) and EEG arousals (red-shaded areas).
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Parameters monitored during an overnight pediatric sleep study.
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Normal parameters for sleep gas exchange and gas exchange in children.
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