About Sleep Medicine

Sleep medicine is a medical subspecialty devoted to the diagnosis and therapy of sleep disturbances and disorders. From the middle of the 20th century, research has provided increasing knowledge and answered many questions about sleep-wake functioning. The rapidly evolving field has become a recognized subspecialty within several medical specialties, and dental sleep medicine also qualifies for board certification in some countries. Disorders and disturbances of sleep are widespread and can have significant consequences for affected individuals as well as economic and other consequences for society.

Dr. Kakaris is an expert in the diagnosis and treatment of Sleep Apnea. It is her goal to show patients ways to recognize, manage, and treat snoring and sleep apnea though the use of contemporary dentistry methods, as well as provide information about oral appliance therapy.

Sleep apnea is very common, and affects more than twelve million Americans, according to the National Institutes of Health. Risk factors include being male, overweight, and over the age of forty, but sleep apnea can strike anyone at any age, even children. Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep. Each episode, called an apnea, lasts long enough so that one or more breaths are missed, and such episodes occur repeatedly throughout sleep.