November is National Diabetes Month
Published October 24th, 2009
Medical problems and dental problems are frequently closely tied together and successful treatment requires blending of medicine and dentistry. A major concern for diabetics is the presence on periodontal disease that has been shown to make blood sugar control much more difficult to control and can even push a borderline patient into requiring drug treatment. Dr Ira L Shapira and Dr Mark J Amidei treat dental patients and addressing the medical concerns associated to those dental problems. They use an ND-YAG laser to treat periodontal conditions with minimally invasive comfortable laser treatment and are a leader in utilizing velscope tissue fluorescent technology for early detection and diagnosis of oral cancer. Their office website is http://www.delanydentalcare.com
Patients with diabetes have always known that they are more prone to decay and periodontal disease when their diabetes is not controlled but until recently it was not common knowledge that gum disease worsened diabetes. This is no surprise to Dr Ira L Shapira who was a frequent lecturer at the American Academy of Anti-Aging medicine and who has a chapter in a textbook on Anti-Aging Medicine titled Anti-Aging Dentistry: An Overview of How Dentistry Relates to Longevity and Quality of Life. He was a pioneer in educating physicians about the oral systemic connections of periodontal disease and diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and other medical disorders. A copy of this article is available on his website at http://www.delanydentalcare.com/pdf/article2.pdf The chapter is actually a transcript of a lecture Dr Shapira gave to 2000 physicians at an A4M, American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine meeting in Las Vegas.
Dr Shapira has been blending Dentistry and Medicine in his practice for over 25 years and he was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Rush Medical School in the 1980’s where he did research on the relation of jaw position in sleep apnea patients. His studies showed that there was a remarkable similarity between male obstructive sleep apnea patients and female TMJ disorder patients. The NHLBI, (National Heart Lung and Blood) released a report on Cardiovascular and Sleep Related Consequences of TMJ Disorders that stated what Dr Shapira’s research had shown 15 years earlier. The report can be found at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/meetings/workshops/tmj_wksp.pdf
Chicagoland Dental Sleep Medicine Associates was founded by Dr Shapira to make Dental Sleep Medicine more accessible to the public. There is an office in American Sleep Medicine in Skokie, in Sleep and Behavioral Medicine Institute offices in Bannockburn and Vernon Hills, in the Schaumburg Dental office of Dr Alan Acierno, and in Chicago and additional offices are expected in the near future. Chicagoland Dental Sleep Medicine can be found in the find a dentist section of http://www.ihatecpap.com or at http://www.chicagoland.ihatecpap.com/
Dr Shapira is also a pioneer in the field of Dental Sleep Medicine. The way the mouth and oral tissues are formed can cause sleep apnea and for many patients the best treatment is an intra-oral device that opens patient’s airways while they sleep. Patients with untreated sleep apnea have a six-fold increase in heart attacks and strokes and also a higher incidence of diabetes. Obstructive sleep apnea will cause diabetic conditions to worsen.
Dr Shapira was one of 20 dentists from around the country who started the Sleep Disorder Dental Society 18 years ago. The SDDS eventually became the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine and has created the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine. Dr Shapira is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine and a Founding Member of DOSA, the Dental Organization for Sleep Apnea.
He teaches courses in Lake County, Illinois in his Gurnee dental practice to dentists from around the U.S. who learn to treat sleep apnea with comfortable oral appliances as an alternative to CPAP treatment. Dr Alex Golbin of Sleep and Behavioral Medicine Institute also participates in training at his Vernon Hills Sleep Center and Research facility. Dr Golbin also has a school to train sleep technicians and Dr Shapira is a featured speaker for each new class.
Dr Shapira has dedicated much of the last 30 years to treating patients with sleep apnea and severe TMJ disorders that cause chronic headaches, migraines and craniolfacial pain. He has created two companies to help patients across the country find appropriate treatment. I HATE CPAP LLC and the website http://www.ihatecpap.com was created several years ago to promote the dangers of sleep apnea to the public and to make patients and physicians aware of the effectiveness of oral appliances in treating sleep apnea. Thousands and thousands of patients have found treatment for sleep apnea due to that site. He has recently created a new company I HATE HEADACHES.org that he hopes will bring help bring freedom from headache pain to millions of headache sufferers. The site focuses on neuromuscular dentistry for the diagnosis and treatment of Trigeminal nervous system dysfunctions related to the jaws, teeth jaw joints and jaw muscles. The trigeminal Nerve is primarily the Dental Nerve but it is also the nerve most responsible for Migraines and chronic headaches as well as facial pains and sinus pain. Visit the site at http://www.ihateheadaches.org
Dr Shapira is a Fellow of the International College of CranioMandibular Orthopedics (ICCMO) as well as current Secretary and a former US Regent and International Regent. ICCMO is the organization founded to promote Neuromuscular Dentistry by Barney Jankelson a dentist and researcher who founded the art and science of Neuromuscular Dentistry. Dr Norman Thomas who is the expert in the neurology, physiology and anatomy of temporomandibular problem is the International President Elect of ICCMO but has also taken over as the head of Neuromuscular Dental Research at LVI, the Las Vegas Institute. Dr William Dickerson is the founder of LVI and has brought Neuromuscular Dentistry into mainstream dentistry. In the past the best research on Neuromuscular Dentistry was in Japan and Italy but LVI has become world class under the leadership of Dr Dickerson and Dr Thomas.
Dr Shapira is the Dental Editor of Sleep and Health Journal that is dedicated to helping patients find medical answers in a language they can understand. There are several excellent articles in the Journal pertaining to treatment of sleep apnea and TMJ disorders and headaches. SUFFER NO MORE: Dealing with the Great Impostor should be read by every patient who has TMD or headaches of any type. It can be found at http://www.sleepandhealth.com/story/suffer-no-more-dealing-great-impostor as well as an article originally published in Contact, a publication of the American Equilibration Society on Neuromuscular Dentistry. That article can be found at the following link; http://www.sleepandhealth.com/neuromuscular-dentistry
