3 Credit Hours

There is growing evidence to suggest the significance of proper sleep for our lives.  Ideal sleep plays a role in mental and physical growth and development, learning, physical fitness, and the ability to modulate pain and create healing.  Modern medicine increasingly relies on pharmacologic treatments such as sleeping pills and sedatives to manage sleep disorders.  We will explore why treating sleep breathing disorders is a potential medicine and a possible way to heal the body and the person who suffers from Sleep Related Breathing Disorders. The course will further the discussion that addressing sleep breathing disorders is an important part of modern dental practice. This course is suitable for doctors, hygienists, chairside professionals, and administrative team members. 

Learning Objectives:

• To identify the harm of poor sleep on the body and brain.
• To discuss the short and long-term effects of sleep deprivation and debt.
• To learn what we as dental professionals can do to aid those who suffer from Sleep Related Breathing Disorders.

Dr. John Pawlowicz is a 1993 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, School of Dental Medicine and completed a General Practice Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center – Montefiore Hospital. He has achieved Mastership and Fellowship status with ICCMO (International College of Craniomandibular Orthopedics), Fellowship status with LVI (Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies), and is on the Mastership track with the AGD. Dr. Pawlowicz is a member of the ADA and the PDA, and has served as President of the Dental Society of Western PA. He is a member of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, American Academy of Craniofacial Pain, American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, International Association of Physiologic Aesthetics, and the International College of Craniomandibular Orthopedics. Dr. Pawlowicz is a Featured Speaker and Clinical Instructor at the Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies, speaking on the topics of OSA, snoring, complex occlusal studies, adhesive dentistry, and TMD. Dr. Pawlowicz has retired from a full-time private practice in Lyndora and Mars, PA, and now performs in-office consultation for dentists with patients that present with and suffer from complicated TMD issues, occlusal disharmony, and sleep-related breathing disorder health problems. He spends his leisure time staying current with the latest trends in dentistry and medicine and occasionally plays golf. He and his family regularly volunteer on behalf of Catholic Charities and their home Parish. He lives north of Pittsburgh with his wife and has two children both in college.

Dental Society of Western PA is an ADA CERP Recognized Provider Approved by Pennsylvania Dental Association.
ADA CERP is a service of the American Dental Association to assist dental professionals in identifying quality providers of continuing dental education. ADA CERP does not approve or endorse individual courses or instructors, nor does it imply acceptance of credit hours by boards of dentistry.
Dental Society of Western PA designates this activity for 6 continuing education credits.