A news report from Dental Economics examines pediatric airway disorders, including treatments and symptoms.
Kids can show different signs and symptoms of sleep-related breathing disorders compared to adults. For example, the Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI) threshold for adults to be diagnosed with sleep apnea is five events per hour. For kids, as few as one event per hour is generally a concern and may warrant treatment. In addition, kids can show drastically different signs of sleep disturbances compared to adults. There are several good screening tools for pediatric sleep disorders. For example, the BEARS questionnaire is a simple, effective screening tool for many sleep disorders in a primary care medical setting.1
