Ep.55, Airway Minded Dentistry with the Restorative End in Mind, Dr. Lena Sapozhnikoff

What if forward head posture, chronic neck pain, morning headaches—or even the way someone sleeps—isn't simply a musculoskeletal problem? What if the body is compensating because it's trying to breathe? In this episode of the ASAP Pathway Podcast, Dr. Stacy sits down with chiropractor Dr. Kameron Smith to explore the connection between airway health, sleep, posture, pain and chiropractic care.Kameron's interest in airway began while performing Department of Transportation physicals and recognizing how many drivers were at risk for sleep apnea. Then it became personal. Despite being young, fit and not fitting the stereotypical sleep apnea patient, Kameron was experiencing fatigue, morning headaches and concerning nighttime oxygen readings. His own diagnosis changed the way he began looking at his patients—and eventually his own daughter.Together, Dr. Stacy and Kameron discuss how forward head posture, neck tension, mouth breathing and unusual sleep positions may sometimes be clues that the body is compensating to breathe. They also explore pediatric airway screening, craniofacial growth and development, and why simply correcting posture may miss the bigger question:Why is the body compensating in the first place? Most importantly, this conversation is a call for greater collaboration between dentists, chiropractors and other airway-focused providers. Because sometimes the posture isn't the problem. It's the clue.

What if some of the most powerful tools for healing are already inside your own body? In this episode of the ASAP Pathway Podcast, Dr. Stacy sits down with Dr. Matt Bayes, a primary care sports medicine physician, non-surgical orthopedist, and regenerative medicine doctor whose work focuses on orthobiologics—the use of a patient’s own cells to support healing and recovery. Dr. Bayes breaks down PRP (platelet-rich plasma), stem cells, bone marrow aspiration, adipose-derived cells, and ultrasound-guided regenerative procedures in language patients and healthcare providers can understand. He explains how platelets act as important messengers in the body’s healing process, how stem cells participate in tissue repair, and how these therapies may be used for certain ligament, tendon, cartilage, joint, and musculoskeletal injuries. But this conversation is also about knowing when regenerative medicine is—and isn’t—the right answer. Dr. Bayes and Dr. Stacy discuss the importance of diagnosis and case selection, including situations where surgery remains the appropriate treatment. The discussion also bridges medicine and dentistry as Dr. Stacy explores the growing role of regenerative approaches such as PRF in TMJ care and considers how her own experience with regenerative medicine is influencing the direction of her dental practice. And beneath all of it is a wonderfully simple message: Movement is medicine. Curiosity makes us better clinicians. Collaboration improves patient care. And sometimes the best way forward is to work with the healing capacity the body already possesses.

In this episode of the ASAP Pathway Podcast, Dr. Stacy sits down with Dr. Pedro Cuartas, founder of the Collaborative Airway Management Summit (CAMS) and Clinical Director of South Louisiana Dental Sleep Medicine, for a conversation about what may be one of the biggest missing pieces in airway healthcare: collaboration.

In this episode of the ASAP Pathway Podcast, Dr. Stacy sits down with dental sleep medicine expert Crystal May, Vice President of Dental Sleep Medicine at Happy Sleep, for a wide-ranging conversation about why sleep screening needs to become a routine part of healthcare—and why dentistry may be one of the best places to start.

Season Six of the ASAP Pathway Podcast starts with the three ASAP Pathway co-founders together at the table: Drs. Stacy, Tracey, and Michelle—and this one gets personal. What actually happens to women’s sleep when hormones begin changing? Why does obstructive sleep apnea become much more prevalent in women around midlife? Why can women feel exhausted, foggy, anxious, achy, restless and simply say, “I don’t feel like myself anymore”—yet still have a sleep study that doesn’t look particularly alarming? And what do estrogen, progesterone, cortisol, jaw pain, clenching, TMD, airway anatomy and even heart health have to do with one another? The founders dive into the changing conversation around perimenopause and menopause, including why traditional sleep apnea screening may fail to identify many women. They discuss the limitations of relying only on oxygen desaturations and AHI, and explain RERAs—respiratory effort-related arousals—events that may repeatedly fragment sleep without necessarily meeting the traditional definition of apnea.