The aim of this study was to analyze the changes and improvements in symptoms of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) using semi-rapid maxillary expansion (SRME) in children with narrow maxilla and SDB symptoms. Subjects were 15 patients with sleep disorder (apnea-hypopnea index, AHI ≥ 1) and narrow maxillary arch between 7 and 9 years of age. Before the SRME was applied, all subjects underwent pediatric sleep questionnaires (PSQ), lateral cephalometry, and portable sleep monitoring before expansion (T0). All subjects were treated with SRME for 2 months, followed by maintenance for the next 3 months. All subjects had undergone PSQ, lateral cephalometry, and portable sleep monitoring after expansion (T1). Adenoidal-nasopharyngeal ratio (ANR), upper airway width and hyoid bone position were measured by lateral cephalometry. The data before and after SRME were statistically analyzed with frequency analysis and Wilcoxon signed rank test. As reported by PSQ, the total PSQ scale was declined significantly from 0.45 (T0) to 0.18 (T1) (p = 0.001). Particularly, snoring, breathing, and inattention hyperactivity were significantly improved (p = 0.001). ANR significantly decreased from 0.63 (T0) to 0.51 (T1) (p = 0.003). After maxillary expansion, only palatopharyngeal airway width was significantly increased (p = 0.035). There was no statistically significant difference in position of hyoid bone after expansion (p = 0.333). From analysis of portable sleep monitoring, changes in sleep characteristics showed a statistically significant decrease in AHI and ODI, and the lowest oxygen desaturation was significantly increased after SRME (p = 0.001, 0.004, 0.023).In conclusion, early diagnosis with questionnaires and portable sleep monitoring is important. Treatment using SRME will improve breathing of children with SDB.
Cephalometry ; Child ; Diagnosis ; Early Diagnosis ; Humans ; Hyoid Bone ; Maxilla ; Oxygen ; Palatal Expansion Technique ; Polysomnography ; Respiration ; Sleep Apnea Syndromes ; Sleep Wake Disorders ; Snoring

Sleep disordered breathing (SDB) is a disease characterized by repeated hypopnea and apnea during sleep due to complete or partial obstruction of upper airway. The prevalence of pediatric SDB is approximately 12 - 15%, and the most common age group is preschool children aged 3 - 5 years. Children show more varied presentations, from snoring and frequent arousals to enuresis and hyperactivity. The main cause of pediatric SDB is obstruction of the upper airway related to enlarged tonsils and adenoids. If SDB is left untreated, it can cause complications such as learning difficulties, cognitive impairment, behavioral problems, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and poor growth. Pediatric dentists are in a special position to identify children at risk for SDB. Pediatric dentists recognize clinical features related to SDB, and they should screen for SDB by using the pediatric sleep questionnaire (PSQ), lateral cephalometry radiograph, and portable sleep monitoring test and refer to sleep specialists. As a therapeutic approach, maxillary arch expansion treatment, mandible advancement device, and lingual frenectomy can be performed. Pediatric dentists should recognize that prolonged mouth breathing, lower tongue posture, and ankyloglossia can cause abnormal facial skeletal growth patterns and sleep problems. Pediatric dentists should be able to prevent these problems through early intervention.

Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA) is a rare, autosomal recessive disorder; affected patients are characterized by inability to feel pain and to sweat over the entire body, as well as by mental retardation. Because, in the oral examination, no specific findings on soft or hard tissue may be found except possible lesions due to self-mutilation, early recognition and diagnosis are essential for these patients. Pediatric dentists must be aware of the clinical manifestations and treatment considerations related to uncontrolled body temperature, tactile hyperesthesia and lack of pain reflex. In this case report, dental management of CIPA was suggested by presenting a 6-year follow-up of young patient.
Body Temperature ; Dentists ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Oral ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hereditary Sensory and Autonomic Neuropathies ; Humans ; Hyperesthesia ; Hypohidrosis ; Intellectual Disability ; Pain Insensitivity, Congenital ; Reflex ; Sweat

The purpose of this study was to analyze outpatient referral patterns of children in Jeonbuk National University Dental Hospital. All patients under 16 years old who were consulted from the external facilities were reviewed based on the electronic medical record of Jeonbuk National University Dental Hospital from 2015 to 2018.Total 720 boys and 460 girls with an average age of 7.4 years were referred from local dental clinic (85.2%) for treatment severity (90.2%). 3.2% of patients has disability with the highest number of intellectual disabilities. The patients were usually referred at the pre-treatment stage with higher rates if they had disability or medical problem. Referral rate by chief complaints was highest in surgery, followed by reparative treatment and orthodontic treatment. 2(nd) referrals in pediatric dentistry had a higher rate of referrals to minor surgery and pulp treatment than of first referrals. The time point of 2(nd) referral was relatively delayed with increased ratio of ‘during treatment’.These results suggest necessities of appropriate case selection and referral based reasonable criteria for pediatric dentist.
Child ; Dental Clinics ; Dentists ; Electronic Health Records ; Female ; Humans ; Intellectual Disability ; Jeollabuk-do ; Minor Surgical Procedures ; Outpatients ; Pediatric Dentistry ; Referral and Consultation

The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between various predicting tools and Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI) to identify children with sleep disordered breathing (SDB). From 5 to 10 years old who came for orthodontic counseling, 61 children, whom had lateral cephalograms, pediatric sleep questionnaire (PSQ) records, and portable sleep monitoring results, were included in this study. A total of 17 measurements (11 distances and 6 angles) were made on lateral cephalograms. The measurements of lateral cephalograms, PSQ scales and portable sleep monitoring results were statistically analyzed. 49 of 61 (80%) patients showed AHI > 1, which suspected to have SDB and their mean AHI was 2.75. In this study, adenoid size (A/N ratio), position of the hyoid bone from mandibular plane, gonial angle, and PSQ scale were related to a higher risk of pediatric SDB. Also, oxygen desaturation index (ODI) and snoring time from sleep monitoring results were statistically significant in children with SDB using Mann-Whitney test (p ＜ 0.05).
In conclusion, evaluation of hyoid bone position, adenoidal hypertrophy, gonial angle in lateral cephalogram, and PSQ scale was important to screen out potential SDB, especially in children with frequent snoring.

The purpose of this study was to investigate current status of sedation training for the residents in pediatric dentistry training institutions and opinions about continuing education after the residency program.
Surveys were sent to 18 pediatric dentistry training institutions by e-mail, and the responses were collected and analyzed. Most of the sedation education period for the residents were the 1st-year education (61.1%) and 1 - 3 years of integrated education (55.6%). In terms of an externship, 5 institutions (27.8%) sent their residents to the department of anesthesiology. Second half of the 1st year (50%) was the highest for a resident to use sedation for the first time. The period of supervisor participation varied from not participating at all to whole time throughout the residency program. The sedation training is conducted at all training institutions, but there were variations in the experience that a resident can gain.
All training institutions agreed on the necessity of continuing education of the sedation, but there were various opinions regarding time, method, and the period of review course. Overall, this study suggested that continuing education should be consisted of 1 - 2 hours of didactic education every year and clinical skills and simulation training in every 2 - 3 years.

The purpose of this study was to investigate trends in dental sedation of Korean children and adolescents.
A retrospective study was conducted on patients under 20 years of age who received dental treatment under sedation using National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort Database from 2002 to 2015. Based on the 1 million standard data, there were 436 cases of dental treatment under sedation in 2002, but 4002 cases in 2015, showing a trend increasing every year. The 3 - 5 year old group accounted for the largest portion (54.2%), while the 6 - 8 year old group increased recently. Nitrous oxide inhalation sedation is the most commonly used, accounting for 45.9% in 2002, but increased to 89.5% in 2015. Combination of nitrous oxide inhalation sedation, chloralhydrate and hydroxyzine was the most common, accounting for 5.7% in 2002, but decreased to 2.9% in 2015.
There is a trend to use the sedation method more safely and in a way that reduces side effects.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence and characteristics of pre-eruptive intracoronal radiolucencies (PEIR) from panoramic radiographs in Korean children and adolescents.
This study examined panoramic radiographs of 3,000 patients aged between 5 and 14 years old who visited ten dental hospitals in Korea. The age and gender of the patients, the tooth type, the number of intracoronal radiolucent lesions, and the location and size of the lesions were recorded.
The overall prevalence of patients with PEIR was 2.5%. The difference in the presence of PEIR between both genders was not significant. Within each tooth type, the mandibular first molar showed highest prevalence of PEIR (29.6%). The central part of the crown was the most frequently observed location of PEIR (56.8%). The size of the PEIR lesions was mostly limited to less than one-third of the thickness of coronal dentin.

The aim of this study was to understand the roles of Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) signaling during tooth root and periodontium formation. In this study, we generated the dental mesenchyme-specific Smoothened (Smo) activated/inactivated mice with the activity of Cre recombinase under the control of osteocalcin promoter.In the Smo activated mutant molar sections at the postnatal 28 days, we found extremely thin root dentin and widened pulp chamber. Picrosirius red staining showed loosely arranged fibers in the periodontal space and decreased cellular cementum with some root resorption. Immunohistochemical staining showed less localization of matrix proteins such as Bsp, Dmp1, Pstn, and Ank in the cementum, periodontal ligament, and/or cementoblast.In the Smo inactivated mutant mouse, there was not any remarkable differences in the localization of these matrix proteins compared with the wild type. These findings suggest that adequate suppressing regulation of SHH signaling is required in the development of tooth root and periodontium.
Animals ; Dental Cementum ; Dental Pulp Cavity ; Dentin ; Hedgehogs ; Mice ; Molar ; Osteocalcin ; Periodontal Ligament ; Periodontium ; Recombinases ; Root Resorption ; Tooth Root ; Tooth

Turner syndrome (TS) is a chromosomal disorder caused by monosomy of the X chromosome, with complete or partial absence of the second sex chromosome. Anomalies of root morphology have been found to occur more often in patients with TS, which make endodontic treatment challenging and requires special handling. The patients with TS may also have systematic problems such as cardiac or renal malformations, so in treating these patients it is important for clinicians not only to be aware of the characteristic intraoral findings, but also to make the patients have regular dental check-ups to prevent oral complications in advance.An 12-year-old girl who had been diagnosed with TS at the age of 10 years was referred due to discomfort in the bilateral mandibular premolar regions. Dens evaginatus and taurodontism were detected in all the mandibular premolars characteristically. The bilateral mandibular first premolars had three roots and the bilateral mandibular second premolars had periapical lesion with two roots. Due to the complexity of the root canal anatomy, root canal treatment were completed with a dental microscope to ensure adequate visualization. After 2 years of regular follow-up examinations, there were no clinical sign or symptom associated with the teeth, and no periapical lesion, was found.This case report describes the characteristic oral features and dental management of TS patients.
Bicuspid ; Child ; Chromosome Disorders ; Dental Pulp Cavity ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Monosomy ; Sex Chromosomes ; Tooth ; Turner Syndrome ; X Chromosome