Functional Appliances in the Treatment of Sleep Apnea in Children: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Obstructive Sleep Apnea in children (OSA) is a Sleep-Disordered Breathing (SDR) characterized by partial or complete obstruction of the Upper Airways (UA) during sleep and interfere with sleep patterns and growth and development in children. The gold standard treatment in children is the removal of lymphoid tissue surgery. Disease recurrence can happen and is believed to be due to craniofacial concomitant problems, among others. The objective of this systematic review was demonstrate the effect of the use of functional appliances in the treatment of OSA in children. The search was in the databases included pubmed, scholar, Medline, scielo with the filters, human, children, in all languages, with the key words obstructive sleep apnea and children and orthodontic appliance between the years 1988-2015. Initially were obtained 49 studies, but only 8 studies were eligible by level of evidence. The researches presented clinical positive results but not statistical results. This systematic literature review showed that orthopaedic devices seem to be a good treatment option for children with OSA. Although the level of evidence of the effectiveness of these devices is weak to moderate.