Oral, Metabolic, and Arterial Health: Integrating Carotid Ultrasound Scanning into the Dental Visit- Craig Backs, MD; Katie Kosten, DMD; Becky Ironwing, Dental Hygienist

This MD / DMD team with Becky Ironwing, Dental Hygienist, explains how carotid ultrasound scans can be easily performed by a dental team member, take minimal chair time, and provide information that may just save a life.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the power of carotid ultrasound to find and follow improvement of arterial disease
2. Recognize how carotid ultrasound can be integrated into routine hygiene appointments within a dental practice
3. Describe how dental and medical professionals can collaborate more effectively and efficiently to save lives and improve health by leveraging the oral-systemic connection

Considering statistics show patients routinely visit their primary dental provider more frequently than their primary medical provider, these exams provide opportunities for meaningful tools like carotid ultrasound that assist in identifying markers of disease and disease risk.

Craig Backs, MD, is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, focusing since 2012 on arterial and metabolic disease remission with 40 years of practice and leadership experience.  

Dr. Backs was educated at Valparaiso University and Southern Illinois University School of Medicine followed by Internal Medicine residency at SIU School of Medicine in Springfield, IL.  He served as President and Board Chair of the Illinois State Medical Society and Chief Medical Officer at St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, IL 2007-2010. 

In 2011, he opened The CureCenter for Chronic Disease where he coaches Personalized CurePlans to prevent and reverse progressive arterial and metabolic disease into remission. To support better access to optimal results, he created CureCoach.app and Discovery Scan ultrasounds to find and follow improvement in arterial disease activity.   

Dr. Kosten,, DMD,  is a native of Southern Illinois and graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Biological Sciences from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 2002. After graduation, she became a high school chemistry teacher and coach. Knowing she still had a desire to pursue a career in healthcare, Dr. Kosten returned to dental school and graduated summa cum laude with her DMD degree from Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine in 2009.

Early in her career, Dr. Kosten served as the Dental Director for a non-profit pediatric dental clinic while continuing to treat adults and children in private general practice. In 2016, she returned to SIU School of Dental Medicine as faculty, where she currently serves as the Director of Community Dentistry and Clinical Assistant Professor. She is in private practice at Foley Dental Group in Glen Carbon, IL and Baines Dental Wellness in Springfield, IL, both of which are complete health practices where she treats adults and children.

Most recently, Dr. Kosten committed to furthering her knowledge in the area of nutrition by graduating from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in 2025. As a general dentist, she has a particular interest in educating patients and the public about the mouth’s role in both airway and metabolic health.

Becky Ironwing, Dental Hygienist, graduated from Lewis and Clark Community college with a dental assisting degree in 2005. After graduation, she worked as an assistant for 5yrs gathering knowledge and saving up to return to school for a further degree in dentistry. When the time came, she chose dental hygiene over dental school. She graduated from Lewis and Clark Community College with an associates in applied science, dental hygiene in Dec 2009. She was hired at Foley Dental Group shortly after graduation and hasn’t stopped learning. She became more passionate about her career as a complete health dental hygienist after the untimely passing of her mother from a heart attack in her sleep, triggered from untreated obstructive sleep apnea. She serves her patients by working closely with the doctors to find and treat root causes of disease to promote healthy lifestyles. Becky’s passion in treating her patients is helping them identify specifically how their oral health is impacting their cardiovascular health and also how sleep disordered breathing effects their quality of life. Her purpose in her career is to save as many moms [patients] as possible! She is a wife and a mom to 2 children. In her free time she likes to watch her kids play sports, spend time with family and make crafts.

1 CE credit available to AAPMD members