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MDA – Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas Cruise – Live Event – Various Topics
Set sail on the Icon of the Seas from January 17–24, 2026, and join the Michigan Dental Association and Wisconsin Dental Association for a one-of-a-kind Continuing Education (CE) opportunity. Combining professional growth, tropical destinations, and luxurious accommodations, this Caribbean cruise promises to be an unforgettable journey for dental professionals and their families.
Susan’s Topics:
Sleep Tight: Integrating Practices for Sleep-Disordered Breathing and OSA from Cradle to Grave
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Supporting healthy airways have become the dentists’ privilege and responsibility! It’s true that for every 100 Americans, 26 will have Obstructive Sleep Apnea and only 4 know it. But it doesn’t start with OSA. There is usually a progression from healthy breathing to OSA that includes many factions of disordered breathing, midface insufficiency and muscle incoordination. Learn to recognize risk factors, screen, diagnose and treat breathing disorders from infancy to elderly. Your patients’ health depends on it. The disease implications of oxygen-starved and sleep-deprived conditions include cognitive dysfunction, ADHD, depression, anxiety, heart disease, acid reflux, obesity, erectile dysfunction and more.
YOU WILL LEARN TO:
- Effectively screen for SDB and OSA in patients from newborn to elderly
- Differentiate from physical signs and reported symptoms
- Set up clear communication strategies for interdisciplinary care with appropriate medical professionals
- Advise a CPAP or mandibular advancement device, orthodontics or corrective surgery •Intervene for babies and toddlers to predict and preempt SBD/OSA
- Approach new advances in habit correction and interceptive orthotropics/orthodontics •Recognize the role of tissue restrictions such as tongue ties and how to correct them
- Weave in the critical role of the oral myofunctional therapist toward lasting solutions
Slaying Dragons: Acid Reflux and Diabetes Detection in the Dental Office
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Out of the backdrop of America’s declining health emerge two fire-breathing dragons that destroy tooth and bone: Acid (Airway) Reflux and Insulin Resistance/ Diabetes. This presentation will help you recognize the oral ramifications of these two conditions. More importantly, Susan will challenge our acceptance of conventional “treatment” methods (i.e. medication) and inspire the dental profession to accept a more profound role in root cause analysis and facilitating health change behavior.
YOU WILL LEARN TO:
- Identify the patterns of tooth loss from Acid Reflux
- Understand the “silent” symptoms of reflux that precede heartburn
- Uncover root causes of both, Acid Reflux and Type 2 Diabetes
- Recognize the bi-directional relationship between uncontrolled Diabetes and active Periodontal Disease
- Understand the pathology of Insulin Resistance and its progression to Prediabetes and finally to Type 2 Diabetes
- Accept your role as facilitator and coach for preventing and/or improving lifestyle-related systemic disease
Healing the Healer: Creating Your Best Self
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Are you constantly caring for others but leaving yourself last? Do you end your days feeling exhausted or burned out by the demands of your work? Perhaps you’re feeling unwell, sluggish, or anxious. If so, this transformative experience is designed just for you. Spoiler alert: As health care professionals, we’re facing many of the same health issues as our patients—and we, too, need care and renewal. Today, we’ll explore the root causes of fatigue, weight gain, cardiovascular concerns, acid reflux, brain fog, metabolic dysfunction, and anxiety.
Susan will guide you toward meaningful, sustainable changes that can help you feel younger, more energetic, and healthier within a few short months. Why? Because you can’t pour from an empty vessel, and because…you’re worth it!
YOU WILL LEARN TO:
- Facilitate lasting health behavior changes in yourself and others.
- Break through myths about weight loss for sustainable, lifelong success.
- Improve both the quality and quantity of your restorative sleep.
- Reframe “exercise” into something you truly enjoy.
- Manage and eliminate acid reflux without depending on medications.
- Reduce your risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.