Hudson Valley Health

As true healthcare pioneers, Doctors Michael and Harold Gelb are among a handful of dentists in the country who limit their practice to treating airway and temporomandibular joint disorders. Harold Gelb was the first dentist in the country to relate TMJ (disorders of the function of the jaw’s hinges) to conditions in the rest of the body. He later founded the Craniomandibular Pain Center at Tufts University and the American Academy of Orofacial Pain. Michael Gelb has studied the link between TMJ and other disorders such as snoring and sleep apnea. During the 1980s, he began treating patients with a device known as the “silencer appliance” that has helped many patients achieve dramatic improvement in their health and quality of life.

Both doctors integrate sleep-therapy research into treatment plans for their pain patients, allowing them to successfully manage headaches, neck aches, and a variety of ear complaints. “We also use state-of-the-art computerized home-testing equipment to both screen and follow up on sleep apnea patients to ensure successful outcomes,” explains Dr. Michael Gelb.
Mindful of the link between the health of the mouth and heart disease, The Gelb Center has taken a pro active approach in employing technologies that identify cardiac issues. The practice uses the EndoPat-2000 to detect early cardiovascular disease. This advanced technology is also being used in the widely acknowledged Framingham Heart Study, at Harvard and Yale, The Mayo Clinic, and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.

In addition, The Gelb Center is one of the few offices in the country working with the Physiologic Dentistry program, which gives feedback in heart rate variability , breathing, EMG and other data which offers important feedback as to sympathetic overload.