Ira L Shapira, DDS, is stepping down as editor-in-chief of CRANIO: The Journal of Craniomandibular & Sleep Practice, dedicated to temporomandibular disorders (TMJ) and the treatment of related pain and dysfunction, to focus on helping more patients who have snoring, sleep apnea, upper airway resistance syndrome, and TMJ disorders/myofascial pain and dysfunction.
Shapira is also reducing his time in the Gurnee, Ill, Delany Dental Care office, which he founded in 1984, to dedicate more time to patients with severe pain related to jaw function and the trigeminal nervous system.
The dental sleep medicine practitioner’s Highland Park, Ill, office is dedicated to the treatment of TMJ disorders and treatment of headaches and migraines related to trigeminal nervous function.
Shapira is a leading proponent for the use of self-administered sphenopalatine ganglion blocks for the treatment of pain, anxiety, and disorders relating to imbalance in the autonomic nervous system. He taught courses in Moscow in 2019 and in India in 2023. He taught and administered over 100 sphenopalatine ganglion blocks in India to doctors who wanted to learn his technique.
Shapira has lectured and taught courses on dental treatment of sleep disorders since 1982.
He is currently the president-elect of the American Section of the International College of CranioMandibular Orthopedic and was one of 20 dentists who founded the Sleep Disorder Dental Society, which later evolved into the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine.
Shapira founded www.IHATECPAP.com to help patients find alternatives to CPAP for the treatment of sleep apnea and founded www.IHateHeadaches.org to help patients find solutions for headaches and migraines not responding to standard medical treatments.
Photo caption: Ira L Shapira, DDS/LinkedIn
