Knowledge and Attitudes About Obstructive Sleep Apnea Among Dental Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: Dental sleep medicine is an increasingly recognized medical specialty, but obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) frequently progresses undetected. Dentists are often the first health-care professionals to assess signs and symptoms of OSA and therefore have a key role in OSA diagnosis. The purpose of the study was to assess the knowledge and attitudes about OSA among dental students. Methods: The OSA knowledge and attitude questionnaire was completed by dental students between April 2023 and June 2023. The questionnaire includes 18 knowledge and 5 attitude items on OSA. Chi-square tests and Student’s t-tests were used to compare the differences between individual items and mean scores of the participants. Differences were considered significant at P < .05. Results: A total of 351 dental students participated in the study. The total knowledge scores of the students were poor with a mean knowledge score for all students of 51% (9.18 ± 2.89). While 67.6% of participants considered OSA to be of clinical importance, only 18.2% were confident in their ability to manage OSA. Conclusion: There are some deficiencies in the OSA education provided to dental students. Additional courses on dental sleep medicine are needed, and relevant updates should be made to the dentistry curriculum. © 2025, Ataturk Universitesi. All rights reserved.