Sleep Matters Podcast

Sleep apnea, for sleep professionals, feels EASY to diagnose - but what about when it isn’t cut and dry? For patients who don't fit the stereotype, don't respond perfectly to CPAP, or need more than one provider involved in their care, the path can feel impossible.

Emma Cooksey spent roughly a decade living with undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea. She was exhausted, waking with headaches, struggling to stay awake, and treatin...

Dentists have a habit of making sleep harder than it needs to be. They get buried in medical insurance, device details, referrals, and clinical workflows before they've even figured out how to consistently get patients tested.

Dr. Tarun Agarwal has spent years building a successful sleep practice and teaching others how to add sleep into their general practice, and his approach is refreshingly direct: treat it like a real business i...

Most dental sleep courses are built for sleep-only practices. So when a general dentist tries to copy that model, the workflow buckles, the team stalls, claims get denied, and less than 5% ever make it off the starting line.

Dr. Erin Elliott runs a thriving general practice and treats a lot of sleep. In this episode, she and Jason Tierney get into what actually works when you want to do both, and why the way most dentists start almo...

Dentists take the course. Fill the notebook. Nod at all the right moments.

Then they go home and do nothing with it.

Dr. Jamison Spencer has watched that happen for 25 years, and in this episode he tells Dr. Erin Elliott and Jason Tierney exactly why it keeps happening. Along the way: PRF and why he refuses to stop talking about it, the fear that keeps good dentists from helping obvious patients, an AADSM membership number that shoul...

In this episode, Dr. Erin Elliott and Jason Tierney sit down with Dr. Madan Kandula to explore a part of airway care that too often gets overlooked: the nose.

Dr. Kandula is a board-certified ENT and the founder/CEO of ADVENT, an ENT practice built around treating airway concerns across what he calls the "breathing triangle." In just a few years, what started as a single location in Milwaukee has grown into 40 clinics across 6 state...

In this episode, Dr. Elliott and Jason Tierney sit down with Dr. Mark Murphy to discuss the skill no one wants to talk about that goes ignored at your detriment: communication.

Dr. Murphy has spent more than 30 years in dental sleep medicine, from teaching alongside Dr. Keith Thornton at the Pankey Institute to practicing in Michigan, working in education, and helping launch a sleep program at the University of Detroit Mercy School ...

In this episode, the co-hosts take a step back and tell you who they are, how they got here, and why Sleep Matters.

Jason's path into dental sleep started nearly 20 years ago at a large dental lab. Early demand for snore devices sent him down a rabbit hole that never ended — device inventors, sleep labs, key opinion leaders, CE courses, software, publishing, and eventually Transform Dental Sleep, an annual meeting built around...

In this episode of Sleep Matters, Dr. Erin Elliott and Jason Tierney are joined by inventor Jim Marsh and sleep researcher Dr. Poppy May Gardiner to explore an unconventional but increasingly talked-about sleep technology: SleepVibe.

Jim Marsh, a mechanical engineer turned sleep device inventor, shares the touching personal story that led him to develop SleepVibe after a period of extreme sleep deprivation while caring for his wife....

In this episode, Dr. Anthony Bolamperti joins Dr. Erin Elliott and Jason Tierney to talk about how laser dentistry transformed his practice, why tethered oral tissues are often overlooked in sleep medicine, and how functional frenuloplasty can become a powerful tool for treating airway patients.

After years of trying different laser systems and struggling to find the right technology, Dr. Bolamperti built a niche practice in Omaha, ...

In this episode, Dr. Craig Harder joins Dr. Erin Elliott and Jason Tierney to talk about the kind of career shift most dentists hope they never have to face, but every practice owner should be prepared for.

After nearly 30 years in private practice, Dr. Harder was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The diagnosis changed his timeline, his relationship with clinical dentistry, and the way he thought about identity, ownership, r...

In this episode, Ryan Javanbakht joins Jason Tierney and Dr. Erin Elliott to break down one of the biggest issues in dental sleep medicine: patient follow-through on testing.

Most practices think they have a testing problem. They don’t; they have a communication problem.

Patients drop off because they don’t fully understand why it matters, what happens next, or what it will cost. Without that clarity, even motivated patie...

In this episode, Jason Tierney and Dr. Erin Elliott talk with Dr. Johnny Ukich about the slow shift from focusing mainly on cavities and traditional pediatric care to recognizing the early signs of sleep-disordered breathing in kids.

What does it take for a busy pediatric dentist to start seeing airway differently?

For Dr. Ukich, that shift didn’t come from one lecture or a EUREKA! moment. It came through years of conversations...

Why do the thousands of dollars you spend on dental consultants evaporate the moment your team gets busy? Dr. Max Kerr breaks down the real reason your practice falls back into bad habits, office drama, and useless meetings. Learn how the EOS framework forces total team accountability, kills breakroom gossip, and builds a structural foundation that permanently solves your biggest operational headaches.

What We Discuss with Dr. Max K...

The "business of dental sleep medicine" shouldn’t feel like a dirty secret - and PROFIT shouldn’t be a curse word in sleep. In this episode, Jason Tierney, Dr. Erin Elliott, and Dr. Max Kerr stop apologizing for building healthy businesses. Dr. Kerr explains how his own "rheostat regret"—a deep-seated dislike for traditional drilling and filling—led him to master the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) an...

Dental Sleep Medicine is like Groundhog Day. Why?

In this episode, Jason Tierney and Dr. Erin Elliott sit down with the "fierce advocate" himself, Dr. Steve Carstensen, to examine why the field is moving at the speed of a dial-up modem.

Steve has been in the room where it happens—serving on boards, teaching the masses, and pushing the rock up the hill—and he’s got some thoughts. If you’ve ever felt lik...

You did your job. You addressed the patient’s breathing and airway issues. But they are still spending their days feeling like they haven’t slept. What’s the deal?

This week, sleep expert and psychiatrist Dr. Shane Creado joins Jason Tierney and Dr. Erin Elliott to solve the mystery of the "tired-but-treated" patient. We are diving into the "busy brain," the trap of sleep trackers, and why your bedroom might be tra...

What if your referral sources keep sending patients, but your delivery numbers never match up? 

Scott Craig joins hosts Jason Tierney and Dr. Erin Elliott to break down a glaring reason many sleep practices stall: they track activity, not conversion. This isn't about "doing more marketing"—it’s about plugging the leaks in your pipeline. Scott shares how he transitioned from a general dental setting to a 5-location s...

What if that "cute" childhood snore is actually the sound of your child gasping for air, struggling to stay alive?

In this high-energy, eye-opening episode, Dr. Stacy Becker—one-third of the powerhouse team behind ASAP Pathway—joins us to dismantle the myth that kids "just grow out of it." After witnessing her own father struggle with CPAP intolerance and watching her own children show the classic "red flags" despite doi...

What happens to a patient’s heart when they receive life-altering news alone, staring at a cold computer screen?

In this deeply moving episode, Lesia Tierney—a 20-year leader in dental sleep medicine—shares the moment her world shifted. After decades of helping convert patients, she found herself on the other side of the consult desk, navigating a breast cancer diagnosis. This isn't just a talk about practice manag...