Pharyngorofacial Imaging for Evaluation of Upper Airway and Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders in Children

Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders (SRBD) and its severe form, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), is an often-overlooked diagnosis in children. The gold standard for diagnosing this condition is polysomnography, but this can be expensive, time-consuming, and not widely available. Children that present with clinical signs of SRBD and OSA should be evaluated clinically; and, if presenting with signs of obstruction, CBCT can be used for the evaluation of the upper respiratory tract to determine these areas of obstruction and determine the course of action for relieving it. In this presentation, Dr. Tamimi will discuss some anatomic and pathologic obstruction areas as visualized on CBCT. Dr. Yousefian will demonstrate the relationship between the pediatric SRBD and OSA to different areas of obstruction in the upper respiratory tract and the clinical methodology for the correction.

Learning Objectives:

• Learning the most common upper respiratory tract obstruction areas as can be visualized on CBCT.

• Understanding the limitations and pitfalls of CBCT evaluation for upper respiratory tract obstruction.

• Demonstrating the clinical cases with SRBD and OSA resulting from upper respiratory dysfunction and structural obstruction.

Presenters: Dania Tamimi, BDS, DMSC and Joseph Yousefian, DMD, MS, MA

(3 CE Credits)