Annual Session 2026 Speakers:

Ellie Campbell, do, &

Kathleen Carson, DDS

About the speakers:

Annual Session 2026 - Speaker Square - Campbell (3)

Dr. Campbell is a native Chicagoan, and graduate of the University of Illinois, the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the Medical College of Georgia. Board certified in Family Medicine for over 30 years, she also holds board certification from the American Board of Integrative Medicine.

She is an author, internationally acclaimed speaker, and solo physician with specialty interests in interdisciplinary collaboration, Functional Medicine, reversing chronic illness, cardiovascular disease prevention, natural treatments for high blood pressure, and the oral-systemic connection. She also enjoys live theater, mushroom foraging, healthy cooking, hiking, and travel with her husband, three adult daughters and 2 100-pound dogs.

Annual Session 2026 - Speaker Square - Carson (2)

Dr. Kathleen Carson is an airway-centric and oral-systemic dentist, educator, consultant, author, podcast co-host, and founder of Oral-Vitality™ and Oral-Vitality Products, LLC. With more than 20 years of experience in integrative, patient-centered care, she focuses on identifying oral-systemic contributors to chronic inflammatory conditions and systemic dysfunction across microbial, inflammatory, airway and sleep, functional, salivary and biochemical, and structural domains.

Through Oral-Vitality™, Dr. Carson provides advanced oral-systemic assessment, diagnostics, education, and interdisciplinary care coordination, connecting oral health, airway function, sleep, inflammation, microbial patterns, and whole-body wellness.

With Dr. Ellie Campbell, she co-hosts two podcasts: Vital Signs & Smile Lines, a professional show on oral-systemic health, airway function, and collaborative care, and Sleep, Sex, and Senility, a public-facing show that makes these topics accessible to everyday listeners. She is also preparing a forthcoming book on the mouth as a gateway to whole-body health.

A Diplomate of the American Sleep and Breathing Academy and a Fellow of both the International Association of Physiologic Aesthetics and the Buteyko Breathing & Integrative Breathing Foundations, Dr. Carson is dedicated to advancing collaborative, root-cause oral-systemic care.

About the Episode:

Title: "Sleep, Sex, and Senility" Podcast

Friday, September 11, at 11:40 AM on the Main Stage

Summary:
This activity presents a structured, build-from-scratch model for integrating oral–systemic care into medical and dental practice, organized around a familiar clinical spine: History → Exam → Medical Decision Making. Participants will learn to identify gaps in oral–systemic risk detection, apply standardized workflows for history, examination, testing, and referral communication, and use a test–treat–retest framework to monitor outcomes and interdisciplinary coordination. The session combines a focused didactic presentation with a conversational podcast segment and is accompanied by a downloadable toolkit of standard operating procedures, checklists, and templates that participants can adapt for use in their own practice.
 
Learning Objectives: 

At the conclusion of this activity, participants will be able to:

  1. Identify practice gaps in recognizing oral–systemic contributors to chronic disease, including periodontal inflammation, oral pathogens, and airway-related sleep disorders.
  2. Describe a structured oral–systemic assessment that integrates standardized history, a focused examination, and the appropriate use of sleep, blood, saliva, and — where available — imaging biomarkers to detect early disease risk.
  3. Outline evidence-informed care plans that address common root causes of inflammation — oral infection, metabolic dysfunction, and lifestyle factors — using a team-based approach.
  4. Establish interdisciplinary communication workflows, including shared reports of findings and care plans with medical and dental referral partners, to improve care coordination.
  5. Apply a test–treat–retest framework to track changes in biomarkers, symptoms, and patient engagement over time.

Practical Applications for Healthcare Professionals:

  • Screen better: add a structured oral-systemic screen (periodontal-inflammatory, airway and sleep, salivary), and flag metabolic and cardiovascular risk for medical coordination.
  • Communicate so the other chair can act: write referral reports that carry the finding, the data, and the specific request, in both directions.
  • Prove it worked: test, treat, and retest, then report the change back to the referring physician.
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Method: Podcast/Lecture
Cost: Included in the Annual Session 2026 ticket
Location: New Orleans, LA
AGD Course Code: 149
AAOSH Core Curriculum: Periodontal Disease & Biofilm Diseases of the Mouth 
Credit Hours: 1