Investigation of an Association between Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Two Chronic Oral Health Conditions

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is gaining attention across the nation with a high prevalence in the United States. Limited research is available on the association between OSA and chronic oral health conditions, such as chronic periodontitis (CP) and temporomandibular disorder (TMD). The first chapter investigated an association between CP and OSA in a case-control study of 48 subjects. In the adjusted model, our results yielded that subjects with symptomatic mild OSA (OR=0.13, 95% CL: 0.01, 1.53) or moderate/severe OSA (OR=0.13, 95% CL: 0.01,1.29) were less likely to have moderate/severe CP than subjects without OSA. The second chapter explored if OSA risk predicted first-onset TMD independently of sleep and awake bruxism in a prospective cohort study of 2,660 subjects. We found that subjects with two or more signs/symptoms of OSA had 72% greater incidence of first-onset TMD than those with fewer signs/symptoms, independently of reported sleep and awake bruxism.