NAPERVILLE CPAP ALTERNATIVES: CPAP Losing Ground To Oral Appliances And Dental Sleep Medicine.

Jan. 11, 2009 - PRLog -- I HATE CPAP! Is a commonly heard comment from patients even though CPAP is the Gold Standard for treatment of obstructive sleep apnea.  Numerous controlled studies spanning several years show the majority of patients do not use their CPAP on a regular basis. In fact, studies have shown that only 23-45% of patients actually use their CPAP. Other studies have shown that even among patients who actually use their CPAP, they average only 4-5 hours of use a night not the recommended 7 1/2 -8 hours. Studies with BiPAP, APAP, Ramping and the multitude of masks show none of these improvements have significant affect on patient compliance. The one factor that predicts success with CPAP is initial acceptance. Patients who like CPAP treatment immediately after diagnosis appear to be compliant in the long term.  Additional information at http://www.ihatecpap.com

The National Sleep Foundation has declared that oral appliances are a treatment "whose time has come".   Dr Ira L Shapira, a Chicago dentist has a mission to increase the public's awareness of sleep apnea and the absolute need for patients to follow up with treatment or risk possible dire health consequences. He created I HATE CPAP LLC and the companies website http://www.ihatecpap.com that is a major source of information on sleep apnea treatment. The site covers all forms of treatment but focuses primarily on Dental Sleep Medicine and oral appliances. The poor compliance of patients with CPAP is at crisis levels and results in billions of dollars of avoidable medical expenses. Patients with untreated sleep apnea have a six fold increase in heart attacks and strokes and heavy snoring has been shown to cause a 10 fold increase in Carotid Atherosclerosis leading to a 1000% increased risk of stroke. Patients with untreated sleep apnea have slower reaction times than patients who are legally drunk and a six-fold increase in Motor Vehicle Accidents. One study showed that patients with mild apnea and no symptoms of daytime sleepiness had a 300% increase in motor vehicle accidents involving severe injury to one or more people

Dr Ira L Shapira, a Gurnee dentist was an early pioneer of oral appliance treatment. He became involved over concern for his three-year-old son Billy. Billy had large tonsils, poor sleep, night sweats and heavy snoring. When Dr Shapira and his wife Elise expressed their concerns to the pediatrician they were told he would outgrow the problem. When Billy was 5 years old he was held back from kindergarten and it was suggested that he had ADHD and that Ritalin might be appropriate treatment. At this point they decided to override the pediatrician and saw an ENT would not remove the tonsils because he would lose the pediatricians referrals. Dr Shapira arranged for Billy to have a sleep study done at Rush Sleep Center, which showed that Billy had severe sleep apnea.

Billy had his tonsils out and his mouth widened orthodontically and became a straight "A" student and graduated college double major, double minor Magna cum Laude. Immediately after removal of the tonsils Billy went to a 95% growth curve, did not wake repeatedly, and did not need Ritalin.

Research has now shown that 80% or more of ADD and ADHD cases are related to sleep apnea. We now know that growth disturbances from disturbed sleep are well documented, as are immune deficiencies. Delayed brain development and even permanent changes in brain development are traced to untreated sleep apnea. The American Academy of Pediatric Medicine says that snoring can never be ignored in young children and that any apnea should be treated even if they only occur once an hour. Dr Shapira is available to speak to educational and medical groups concerning developmental aspects of sleep apnea and ADHD. Correction of these problems early could drastically improve the health and lives of children as well as leading to long term savings in health care expenses.

Dr Shapira spent the night with his son at the sleep lab and developed a life long interest in sleep apnea and snoring treatment. He became a visiting Assistant Professor at Rush and did research on the relation of jaw position to sleep apnea using neuromuscular dentistry techniques. His research showed that the jaw relations of apneic men were very similar to women with TMJ problems. The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) released a report on that very subject.
CARDIOVASCULAR AND SLEEP-RELATED CONSEQUENCES OF TEMPOROMANDIBULAR DISORDERS: NHLBI WORKSHOP. This excellent article can be found at: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/meetings/workshops/tmj_wksp.pdf

This is extremely important information that links TMJ disorders including headache, migraine, earache, sinus pain, facial pain, TM Joint clicking and popping, neck pain, jaw pain and numerous other disorders to sleep and sleep disorders. Morning headaches are a frequent symptom of disturbed sleep and Fibromyalgia is also considered a sleep disorder. The full report can be found at: http://sleepandhealth.com/modules.php?name=News&file=arti...

A series of article by Shimshak et al published in Cranio showed a 200-300% increase across all fields of medicine in patients carrying a RMJ diagnosis. Temporomandibular Disorders (TMD) often falls in a gap between medical and dental insurance coverage. This is unfortunate because lack of treatment probably increases medical expenses for these patients two to three fold.

Suffer No More is an excellent article published in Sleep and Health Journal on TMD or Temporomandibular Dysfunction. It is available at: http://sleepandhealth.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=237&tid=22

Dr Shapira was a charter and Credentialed member of the Sleep Disorder Dental Society which later became the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine, a Founding member of DOSA, the Dental Organization for Sleep Apnea and was recently named to be on the Board of Directors of the Illinois Sleep Society.

When the American Academy of Sleep Medicine accepted oral appliance treatment of sleep apnea they recommended that dentists treating apnea should be well versed in treatment of TMJ/TMD disorders. Dr Shapira has been involved in treating TMJ disorders and chronic pain for almost 30 years and is a Fellow and Regent of ICCMO, the International College of CranioMandibular Orthopedics. It is the premiere group focusing on Neuromuscular Dentistry and it's use in the treatment of chronic head and neck pain. Dr Shapira is a representative from ICCMO to the TMJ Dysfunction and Pain.

He has worked for several years on http://www.ihatecpap.com to pass on knowledge about sleep apnea and snoring to the general public and to create a site where patients could find dentists trained in Dental Sleep Medicine. Dr Shapira teaches courses on Dental Sleep Medicine in his Gurnee office and has also lectured at ICCMO and the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) on sleep disorders. Dr Shapira is Available for public speaking and as a consultant to government as well as the healthcare and insurance industries.

The second project Dr Shapira has been working on is minimally invasive early removal of wisdom teeth with collection of Stem Cells. He holds several patents on methods and devices to collect bone marrow and stem cells from developing third molars in young children. He hopes to change the practice of dentistry so patients no longer have to suffer through wisdom tooth extractions. His techniques will almost eliminate morbidity associated with third molar removal. The young healthy stem cells collected through his procedures will enable more people to benefit from future stem cell developments and possibly a future vaccine against aging. If minimally invasive removal of third molars became the standard of care there would be a significant drop in health care costs related to wisdom tooth removal and make stem cell therapy easily available.

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information on sleep apnea, sleep apnea treatment and cpap alternatives are available at http://www.ihatecpap.com This is the premiere site for the promotion of Dental Sleep Medicine and Sleep Apnea Dentisits. The company describes the dangers of sleep apnea in patients friendly terms that are easily understood.