Abstract
Purpose : The aim of this study was to analyze the effectiveness of the Ibaraki Obstructive Sleep Apnea （OSA） Disorder Medical and Dental Cooperation Network, based on a questionnaire survey on dental sleep medicine for general practitioners.
Subjects and methods : A questionnaire survey regarding OSA was performed in 2018 on 1,326 clinics which belonged to the Ibaraki Dental Association. The results were compared between dentists who had attended the certified lecture on OSA on dental sleep medicine by the Ibaraki Dental Association （registered dentists） and those who did not （nonregistered dentists）. The questionnaire results of the registered dentists by region were statistically analyzed, both before and after construction of the network.
Results : The questionnaire results showed that 56 clinics performed oral appliance （OA） treatment, of which 33 had registered dentists and 23 did not. By region, the number of clinics performing OA treatment was statistically significantly higher in regions where certified lectures were held than in regions where they were not held （P＜0.01）. Continuous follow-up after OA treatment was performed in significantly more clinics with registered dentists （48.4%） than in those without registered dentists （8.7%） （P=0.002）. A substantial proportion of clinics （73.2%） used the monoblock type of OA in both groups. Before construction of the network system, the registration rate was 12.7%, and rates were significantly higher in regions where certified lectures were held than in regions where they were not held （P=0.01）. After construction of the network system, the registration rate increased to 17.3%, and there was no difference between the 5 original regions and the 2 regions that newly began to hold lectures, but the rate was significantly higher in these regions than in the 3 regions that did not hold the lectures （P=0.035）.
Conclusion : Our questionnaire survey demonstrated that many of the registered dentists performed continuous follow-up of the patients after OA treatment, and the registration rate increased in the regions that began to hold lectures after construction of the network system.
