CREATING A SUCCESSFUL AND SAFE AIRWAY PRACTICE – PART 1
Jerald Simmons, MD; William Harrell, DMD; Joseph Yousefian, DMD

Jerald H. Simmons, M.D. is the Founding Director of The Sleep Education Consortium (SEC) and Comprehensive Sleep Medicine Associates, PA (CSMA). He is Triple Board-Certified in Neurology, Epilepsy and Sleep Medicine. A graduate of Ohio State University, he trained in Neurology at Washington University, Sleep Medicine at Stanford University and Epilepsy at the University of California. He began his professional career as an Assistant Professor of Neurology at UCLA while co-directing the UCLA Sleep Disorders Center and directing the Clinical Neuro-physiology lab at Olive View UCLA.

In 1999 he moved to Houston to establish his sleep disorders practices. He continues to conduct research studies relating to sleep disorders and developing methods to enhance the assessment and treatment of patients with sleep disturbances. His most recent research involves the relationship between Clenching / Sleep Bruxism / TMJ Disorder with Obstructive Sleep Apnea, as well as the relationship between ADHD And disturbances of sleep.

Education is an important aspect of his career, having trained medical students, residents and fellows in sleep medicine and then establishing the SEC as an outreach to educate the healthcare community. He has been instrumental in providing guidance to the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners that led to the new rules requiring dentists to obtain some degree of education in sleep medicine in order to provide appliance therapy to patients with OSA.

Dr. William (Bill) Harrell graduated from the University of Alabama School of Dentistry in Birmingham, AL in 1975 and completed his orthodontic residency at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine in 1977. He is in private orthodontic practice in Alexander City, Alabama and Auburn/Opelika, Alabama. He became a Board-Certified Orthodontist (ABO) in 1989. Dr. Harrell is also Certified in Dental Sleep Medicine. He worked with the late TMJ pioneers, Dr. Bill Farrar and Dr. Bill McCarty, in Montgomery, AL in the area of TMJ Disorders. Dr Harrell has served as Vice-Pres and President of the Alabama Association of Orthodontists, as the Sect-Treasurer, VP, & President of the 9th District Dental Society of Alabama and served on The Board of Trustees and in the House of Delegates of the Alabama Dental Association. He has also served on various committees of the American Association of Orthodontists.

Dr. Harrell is the first orthodontic private practice in Alabama to have ConeBeam CT (CBCT) and the first in the USA to combine both ConeBeam CT (CBCT) and 3D facial imaging (3dMD) in early 2005. Dr. Harrell’s practice focuses on airway centered orthodontic diagnosis and treatment and TMJ Disorders. Dr. Harrell is the Chairperson of the RadSite ConeBeam CT Standards Committee for setting standards for the Insurance industry of reimbursement.

Dr. Harrell is presently writing and will be the lead Editor of a textbook, Growing into Breathing Problems: The Quest for Collaborative Lifetime Solutions (in press for 2023), on Pediatric Sleep Disorders related to altered Craniofacial growth. The publisher is Springer. The 2 Co-Editors are well-known experts and are physicians in their fields of sleep medicine, Dr. David Gozal, MD, and Dr. David McIntosh. Other co-authors are well known in neurology, sleep medicine, surgery, orthodontics, dentistry, dental sleep medicine, nursing, allergy, asthma, speech and language pathology. The goal is to have a text that bridges Medicine and Dentistry (Orthodontics) in this exciting field.

Joseph Yousefian, DMD, MS, graduated from Washington University with post-graduate training in orthodontics with a dual Master of Science Degree in Biology and Physical Anthropology at The Ohio State University. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine and Orthodontics and has a private practice in Bellevue, Washington. He has collaborated with several NIH-funded clinical trials in the airway, open bite, and TMJ disorders. He has served as a Clinical Assistant Professor at Ohio State University and the University of Washington in graduate pedodontics and orthodontics. He is currently a guest lecturer at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is a manuscript and book reviewer for several publishing companies, including The Permanente Journal, CRC Press, and Taylor & Francis Group. He is a lecturer nationally-internationally. He has served in Children Airway Screening Taskforce in collaboration with the American Dental Association, American Orthodontic Association, American Academy of Sleep Medicine, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Society of Anesthesiologists, and several other medical and dental organizations. He has contributed thirty publications in peer-reviewed journals and twelve textbooks.

1 CE credit available to AAPMD members