Creating the Next Generation of Sleep Dentists

LCWA recently launched a campaign to help the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine (AADSM) reach dental students in order to educate them about dental sleep medicine and encourage them to enter the field. Nearly 30 million U.S. adults suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a potentially life-threatening disorder, and there is a growing need for oral appliance therapy – a treatment option provided by dentists.

To build a platform for the campaign, we created key messages and a landing page on AADSM.org to engage students about the benefits of incorporating dental sleep medicine into their education, as well as taking advantage of free AADSM student membership.

Through an advertorial partnership with the American Student Dental Association (ASDA), the largest and most prominent student-run organization which serves 92 percent of current dental students, the AADSM published a post on the ASDA “Mouthing Off” blog and placed an advertisement on the ASDA.org homepage. As a result, the AADSM drove significant traffic to its student webpage and reached thousands of dental students across the country, raising awareness about why and how students should prepare to provide oral appliance therapy.

In addition, we compiled a targeted list of priority dental schools that included the top colleges for dentistry, universities that offer dental sleep medicine residency programs and the alma maters of leaders in the field. For these dental departments, we designed a promotional flyer about the advantages of dental sleep medicine and AADSM educational resources. The flyer is intended to be shared with students through dental department newsletters and message boards in order to promote the benefits of AADSM student membership and encourage enrollment.

Ultimately, the AADSM student outreach initiative is spreading the word among dental students about the importance of dental sleep medicine services and how they can make positive medical impacts with oral appliance therapy. As students move from dental school to establishing a practice, the AADSM campaign will help ensure there is enough dental sleep medicine practitioners to help sleep apnea patients find successful treatment and put them on the path to better sleep and better health.