Alternatives To CPAP For Treating Sleep Apnea And Snoring Were Explored At A Dental Meeting In Lake County, IL. Alternatives To CPAP Are Vital For Patients Who Are CPAP Intolerant

    GURNEE, IL, April 11, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Alternatives To CPAP For Treating Sleep Apnea And Snoring Were Explored At A Dental Meeting In Lake County, Il. Alternatives To CPAP Are Vital For Patients Who Are CPAP Intolerant.

Dr Ira L Shapira, A Gurnee Dentist Held His Popular Course On Dental Sleep Medicine On April3-4 At Midlane Country Club In Wadsworth And At His Gurnee Dental Office. Dentists And Their Teams From Around The U.S. Attended His Seminar.

Sleep Apnea is a serious disorder that affects millions of Americans. The gold standard of treatment has always been CPAP, unfortunately only a small percentage of patients actually tolerate CPAP. Numerous studies have shown that only 23-45% of patients use their CPAP on a regular basis. The patients who actually tolerate CPAP average only 4-5 hours of use a night.

Patients with untreated sleep apnea face a six-fold increase in heart attacks and strokes, are more likely to become diabetic and have gastric reflex. One study showed a 36% decrease in survival in patients with moderate untreated sleep apnea. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine now considers oral appliances a first line of treatment along with CPAP for mild to moderate sleep apnea. Patients with severe apnea who cannot tolerate CPAP are now considered candidates for oral appliances as well. The National Sleep Foundation has stated that; "oral appliances are a therapy whose time has come...."

Dr Shapira is a pioneer of Dental Sleep Medicine and has been helping improve the lives of patients with snoring and sleep apnea for over 25 years. He has a general dentistry practice, Delany Dental Care Ltd in Gurnee, IL with his partner Dr Mark J Amidei. He also is president of Chicagoland Dental Sleep Medicine Associates, which has recently opened offices in Skokie, Bannockburn, Schaumburg and Chicago, and he continues to see sleep apnea and snoring patients in his Gurnee office. Patients needing help in treating their sleep apnea and snoring issues can reach Dr Shapira at 1-8- NO-PAP-MASK or at his website http://www.chicagoland.ihatecpap.com/

Six exceptional dentists who have already been treating sleep apnea with oral appliances but desired advanced training attended the most recent course. Dr John Bixby of Little Silver, NJ is the dentist who participated in the recent study at Rutgers on Pure Power Mouthguards. The PPM Mouthguards are the most exciting development in dental sports medicine. Athletes utilizing the PPM Mouthguards are enjoying better stamina, balance and peak performance. Dr Bixby's patients are no longer surprised if they run into sports superstars in his office. Dr Bixby has a whole wall of his office covered with photos of athletes using PPM Mouthguards. Drs Shapira and Amidei also make PPM Mouthguards but they have not seen an influx of professional athletes. Dr Shapira has made appliances to increase strength in athletes for many years utilizing the science of Neuromuscular Dentistry. He states that the PPM Mouthguards will change not just professional sports but will also have an enormous impact on amateur golfers and tennis players. He expects high school and college athletes looking for an extra edge to also be enthusiastic about PPM.

Dr James Meyer of Greenville SC and Dr Thomas Meyer of Des Plaines Il came to the course with their teams as well. This was the first time Dr Shapira had brothers attend on of his seminars. In addition to learning about treating sleep apnea and snoring the course also covers advanced techniques for treating TMJ disorders and chronic head neck and facial pain. The doctors are taught how to do trigger point injections to inactivate painful areas in muscles and joints. Dr Shapira studied with Dr Janet Travell who wrote the book "Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction: A Trigger Point Manual" and he utilizes and teaches course attendants how to relieve pain and correct painful conditions using Dr Travell's techniques. Dr Travell was president John F Kennedy's personal physician and Jackie Kennedy built the Rose Garden at the White House in her honor to thank her for alleviating the severe pain the president had as a result of war injuries.

The participants are also taught how to use Sphenopalatine Ganglion Blocks to relieve severe pain and migraine headaches. When Dr Shapira demonstrated the transitional transnasal technique on a participant in the course she described how the pressure she had felt in her head for as long as she could remember went away. Patients appreciate that the SPG block is non-invasive and does not require any injections or needles. An enormous advantage of SPG blocks is that patients can learn to do them at home to relieve a wide variety of chronic pain symptoms including chronic daily headaches and migraines. Spenopalatine Ganglion blocks are frequently used when routine therapy does not relieve symptoms of Temporomandibular Disorders (TMJD or TMD).

An Article in the journal Pain Physician, 2004;7:283-286, ISSN 1533-3159 described the Spenopalatine blocks work on the autonomic nervous system and are also used for treating causalgia, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, regional pain disorders, fibromyalgia and complex regional pain syndrome. According to the authors Robert E. Windsor, MD, and Scott Jahnke, DO "Currently accepted indications for the SPG block are sphenopalatine neuralgia, trigeminal neuralgia, atypical facial pain, acute migraine, acute and chronic cluster headaches, herpes zoster involving the ophthalmic nerve and a variety of other facial neuralgias" Dr Shapira has trained numerous physicians and dentists in use of intranasal Sphenopalatine Ganglion Blocks.

Dr Abraham Katz of Virginia was another participant in the course and attended with his wife. He plans on making treatment of Sleep Apnea a major focus of his practice. Dr Katz has also been treating snoring and sleep apnea prior to attending but wanted to excel in his Dental Sleep Medicine practice. He feels that improving the quality of patients lives is vitally important and is dedicated to learning more about sleep and its effect on chronic pain and depression. He looks forward to treating more patients with Morning Headaches and TMJ disorders. Additional information on how morning headaches, TMJ disorders and Sleep are related can be found at:
http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/view_press_release.php?rID=63194

Dr Bruce Kanehl of Sarrasota, Florida is known for his treatment of TMJ disorders as well as his expertise in full mouth reconstruction and cosmetic dentistry with and without the use of dental implants. Dr Kanehl was excited to be able to use his new knowledge on his first day back in his office after the course. Dr Kanehl and Dr Shapira had an opportunity to learn a great deal from each other while driving to the Sleep and Behavioral Medicine Institute. Dr Alexander Golbin a pioneer and researcher in the field of Sleep Medicine teach a portion of this course. The book "THE WORLD OF CHILDREN'S SLEEP: PARENTS' GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING CHILDREN AND THEIR SLEEP PROBLEMS" was written by Alexander Z. Golbin, MD, PhD. Dr Golbin introduces the doctors to the business of sleep medicine and outlines the complexities of sleep medicine. Dentists are often tempted to treat patients without the use of polysomnography (sleep tests) in the course they learn about the wide variety of disorders that can masquerade, as sleep apnea and how inadequate diagnosis can be a disaster for patients and doctors.

Dr Donald L Wilcox was another course participant who is also deeply involved in the treatment of TMJ Disorders utilizing neuromuscular dentistry. Neuromuscular dentistry is a powerful tool in the hands of a trained dentist and can be used to relieve pain that has been treatment resistant. Dr Shapira has information on neuromuscular dentistry at his website. http://www.delanydentalcare.com/neuromuscular.html and at http://www.ihateheadaches.org
A major emphasis of the course revolves around the similarities of TMJ disorders and sleep disorders. The NHLBI, the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute consider sleep apnea to be a temporomandibular disorder. All patients suffering from TMJ disorders, sleep apnea and chronic pain should read their report "CARDIOVASCULAR AND SLEEP-RELATED CONSEQUENCES OF TEMPOROMANDIBULAR DISORDERS" which can be found at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/meetings/workshops/tmj_wksp.pdf

A great deal of the course material focuses on the development factors involved in TMJ disorders and Sleep Apnea. Dr Shapira is passionate about helping children as early as possible because of his experiences with his son, Billy. His story can be found at http://www.ihatecpap.com/dr_shapira.html It is now estimated that 80% of the children with ADD and ADHD are probably related to sleep disturbances caused by snoring, upper airway resistance and sleep apnea.

Dr Shapira was the invited speaker on April 7, 2009 at the North Suburban Branch of the Chicago Dental Society where he spoke on the "Diagnosis and Treatment of Sleep Apnea in Relation to TMJ Disorder" The course was extremely well attended with over 90 members participating and following his presentation he spent an hour answering questions. He covered in great detail the developmental similarities of TMJ Disorders and Sleep Apnea.

About Dr Ira L Shapira

Dr Ira L Shapira is an author and section editor of Sleep and Health Journal, President of I HATE CPAP LLC, President Dato-TECH, and has a Dental Practice with his partner Dr Mark Amidei. He has recently formed Chicagoland Dental Sleep Medicine Associates. He is a Regent of ICCMO, the International College of CranioMandibular Orthopedics and its representative to the TMD Alliance, He was a founding and certified member of the Sleep Disorder Dental Society which became the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, A founding member of DOSA the Dental Organization for Sleep Apnea. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine, A Diplomat of the American Academy of Pain Management, a graduate of LVI. He is a former assistant professor at Rush Medical School's Sleep Service where he worked with Dr Rosalind Cartwright who is a founder of Sleep Medicine and Dental Sleep Medicine. Dr Shapira is a consultant to numerous sleep centers and teaches courses in Dental Sleep Medicine in his office to doctors from around the U.S. He is the Founder of I HATE CPAP LLC and http://www.ihatecpap.com Dr Shapira also holds several patents on methods and devices for the prophylactic minimally invasive early removal of wisdom teeth and collection of bone marrow and stem cells. Dr Shapira is a licensed general dentist in Illinois and Wisconsin.

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