Everyone has experienced the apprehension and discomfort that comes with a trip to the dentist, although most of us never do anything about it other than procrastinating. Dr. Michael Pecenka and Dr. John Herald decided to make a difference by treating patients with both care and comfort. They opened their practice, Michael P. Pecenka & John T. Herald, DDS, Inc., in August of 1977 and have built a family practice that treats all age groups with a combination of professional skills and loving compassion. We visited recently with Drs. Pecenka and Herald, listened while they told of their offerings;
At Michael P. Pecenka & John T. Herald, DDS, Inc., we provide a full range of general dentistry services including crowns, bridges, root canals, endodontics, fillings, and the treatment of gum tissue diseases. We perform aesthetic dentistry, prosthetic dentistry, and implant dentistry. We take great pride our ability to perform final restorations within a single visit and our office is a treatment and screening center for patients who have sleep apnea.
We began treating sleep apnea in 2002 as a result of our search for a method to treat snoring. Snoring is often an early sign of a patient who is beginning to develop sleep apnea, which is the cessation of breathing for twenty seconds or longer. This cessation of breathing causes a decrease in the oxygen saturation in the blood which can lead to a myriad of symptoms resulting in chronic pain patterns in the neck and lower back, tiredness, and nightmares. Children with poor sleep patterns suffer a host of symptoms that include agitation from being over-tired, ADD, ADHD, bed-wetting, and chronic rhinitis.
Diagnosing apneic problems is facilitated by the use of pulse oximetry, pharyngometry, and a sleep recorder. The pharyngometer enables us to map the upper airway and pulse oximetry enables us to record the blood oxygenation and the heart rate of the patient for the entire night. Home sleep devices help monitor sleep and wake patterns, as well as apneic events and other abnormal breathing disturbances.
Sleep apnea is traditionally treated with a CPAP machine which is consider to be the "gold standard" of treatments. We can, however, achieve therapeutic results by moving the patient's lower jaw forward which helps remove their tongue from the airway space. By opening the airway in this manner, we're often able to alleviate not only the patient's snoring, but also their apneic events, as well.
When performing final restorations such as crown and inlays, we use a CEREC instrument that allows the restorations to be done in a single visit rather than having the patient numbed twice. Since 2001, we've been performing the CEREC procedure with great success and have seated thousands of crowns and inlays.
We both trained for 20 years with a physician who was President Kennedy's physician in the White House. We have an exceptional understanding of head, neck, and face pain patterns and treatments and we believe in treating the origin of the pain rather than simply treating the symptoms with medications.
Michael P. Pecenka & John T. Herald, DDS, Inc. performs all aspects of family dentistry with skill and comfort. Call Michael P. Pecenka & John T. Herald, DDS, Inc. for an appointment today and don't forget to tell them that The Advocate sent you!
