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Maxillomandibular advancement surgery may be an effective treatment for patients with obstructive sleep apnoea

Derek Richards

This  is a critical summary  prepared by ADA Centre for Evidence-Based Dentistry  of a systematic review originally published  in 2010.

The original review looked at which surgical modifications of the upper airway were most effective  in reducing the apnoea-hypopnoea index (AHI) for patietns suffering with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). OSA is relatively common occurring in 2-4% of the adult population.

The summariser  noted that the review well thought out but relied on the AHI as its main outcome measure a point acknowledged by the review authors as a limitation.  The review overall suggested that maxillomandibular advancement surgery may be an effective treatment for patients with OSA but the available evidence is limited.

Go to the ADA critical summary

Go to the PubMed abstract of the original review

Related reviews

Sundaram S, Bridgman SA, Lim J, Lasserson TJ. Surgery for obstructive sleep apnoea. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2005 Oct 19;(4):CD001004. Review. PubMed PMID: 16235277.

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Written by

Derek Richards is a specialist in dental public health, Director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Dentistry and Specialist Advisor to the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme (SDCEP) Development Team. A former editor of the Evidence-Based Dentistry Journal and chief blogger for the Dental Elf website until December 2023. Derek has been involved with a wide range of evidence-based initiatives both nationally and internationally since 1994. Derek retired from the NHS in 2019 remaining as a part-time senior lecturer at Dundee Dental School until the end of 2023.

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