Continuing Education

Why Dental Sleep Practitioners Must Take a Seat at This Table by Sunita Merriman, DDS ”What is spoken of as a clinical picture is not just a photograph of a sick man in bed; it is an impressionistic painting of the patient surrounded by his home, his work, his relations, his friends, his joys, sorrows, hopes and fears. Now all of this background of sickness which bears so strongly on the symptomatology is liable to be lost sight of in the hospital.”1 …

ACEs, Integrative Medicine, and the Mind Body Connection Read More »

by Richard B. Drake, DDS, D.ABDSM, and George S. “Gy” Yatros, DMD, D.ABDSM “It has become necessary to develop medicine as a cooperative science; the clinician, the specialist, and the laboratory workers uniting for the good of the patient, each assisting in elucidation of the problem at hand, and each dependent upon the other for support.” – William J. Mayo at 1910 commencement address to Rush Medical College The implementation of electronic records in medicine and dentistry coupled with workflow …

Get with the Program: Dental Sleep Medicine and Electronic Medical Records Read More »

by Jagdeep Bijwadia, MD, MBA, D.ABDSM Telemedicine has experienced accelerated growth and as evidenced by the current COVID-19 crisis, it is a powerful resource that enables the disruption of healthcare delivery.1 Telehealth and telemedicine are terms often used interchangeably, but if one is a purist then the term telemedicine is really a subset of telehealth. Telehealth encompasses all health-related uses of communications technology. Telemedicine specifically applies to the use of this technology for clinical applications. The idea that technology can …

Telemedicine: It’s About Time Read More »

by Barry Glassman, DMD, and Don Malizia, DDS Dentistry’s Empirical History Restorative dentistry has built institutions based on empirical evidence. Unfortunately, scientific evidence has not been an essential element of dentistry’s history. Without an understanding that empiricism is a theory based in the role of experience and observation in “evidence,” dentistry creates a curriculum devoid of randomized controlled studies.  Dental students are not required to read and digest current literature, and are not taught the principles of evidenced based medicine. …

Bruxism & Sleep Disturbed Breathing: A Guide to Critical Thinking about Empiricism, Science, Bruxism, and Sleep Read More »

  An Ounce of Prevention: Avoiding Oral Appliance Therapy Related Side Effects by Jamison Spencer, DMD, MS With serious systemic health consequences being clearly linked with not treating SRBD, any potential dental side effects related to treatment of such disorders are a small price to pay. After all, tooth movement and occlusal changes rarely result in heart attack, stroke or death. Still, the caring dentist wants to minimize problems for their patients. The keys to avoiding these troubles are: Recognizing …

Special Section – Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders: The Role of the Dentist, Part 2 Read More »

Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders: The Role of the Dentist by Jeffrey Cole, DDS President, American Dental Association An ADA Perspective In 2017, the American Dental Association (ADA) took a major step toward helping patients who suffer from sleep-related breathing disorders (SRBDs). That year, the ADA House of Delegates adopted a policy urging dentists to play a role in the care of patients with certain SRBDs. The ADA believes that dentists are uniquely positioned to collaborate with physicians in the care of …

Special Section – Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders: The Role of the Dentist Read More »

by Daniel E. Taché, DMD And if tonight, my soul may find her peace in sleep, and sink in good oblivion, and in the morning wake like a new-opened flower, then I have been dipped again in God and new-created. –D.H. Lawrence Why Publish This Case Report? My decision to publish the outcome of this one TMD case was threefold: 1. Hypothesis: Epilepsy can be solely a comorbid condition of undiagnosed/untreated sleep-related breathing disorder and that an intraoral airway device …

Dental Sleep Medicine: A Case Study of a TMD Patient with a 24-year History of Refractory Epilepsy Entirely Controlled with a Mandibular Advancement Device Read More »