Dr. Koehne graduated from Loyola University of Chicago before earning his Doctorate of Dental Surgery from the University of Illinois Dental School in 1984. With more than 30 years of dentistry experience and advanced continuing education, Dr. Koehne enjoys helping patients improve their overall health, confidence, and appearance with healthy, functional, beautiful smiles. Dr. Koehne has completed advanced training in Dental Sleep Medicine, treating patients that are diagnosed with sleep breathing disorders. Dr. Koehne in currently a member of the American Dental Association (ADA), the Illinois State Dental Society (ISDS), the Chicago Dental Society (CDS), and a Diplomate of the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine (AADSM).

Cheryl is our Front Desk/Office Manager. She joined us in 2006 after she retired from AT&T as a Finance Manager in the Global Real Estate Division. She enjoys the daily interaction with our patients and their families. While she cant say she enjoys dealing with the insurance companies, she has become quite adept at navigating the trials and pitfalls that come with insurance claims! Cheryl lives in Naperville with her husband, Jesse, and enjoys reading, knitting and travel.

Hi, Im Peggy and Ive been a Dental Assistant working with Dr. Koehne since 1989. I have been living in Wheaton for 48 years and my husband Bill and I raised our three children in this wonderful community. I really have enjoyed being a Dental Assistant and working with all the wonderful patients Ive come to know and enjoy as friends.

Jeanne grew up in Peoria, IL. She attended the University of Iowa where she earned her Bachelors Degree in Nursing. She later found her passion in dentistry working as a dental assistant in Pediatric, General and Orthodontic practices. She went on to earn her Associate of Applied Science in Dental Hygiene and has been practicing clinical Dental Hygiene in General Dentistry since 2007. In her free time she enjoys cooking, baking, travel, live music and karaoke. She lives in Bartlett, IL with her 3 cats: Captain, Frank and Hunter.

Hi, Im Evelyn. I have been working at Amber Dental for about 2 years as a Dental Assistant. My favorite part about being a Dental Assistant is working with great co-workers that are like family. I love working with patients daily and helping them out in every way possible. I grew up here in Illinois and went to Addison Trail High School. I have a wonderful husband, Edgar, who supports me in everything I do. We have a beautiful dog named Enzo who keeps us very busy and active!

Hi, Im Nadia. I am originally from Latvia. I came to the United States in 2000 and became a US citizen in 2015. When I first came to the US I was a caregiver for elderly patients which I found to be very rewarding. I really enjoy working with people and the dental office provides the perfect opportunity for this and to learn new skills. In my spare time I enjoy shopping and organizing!

Juliza came to us from the College of DuPage Dental Assistant Program in 2016. She enjoyed her time here as a Dental Assistant and has decided to further her education in the dental field. She started this fall at Southern Illinois University studying to become a Dental Hygienist.

Hi, Im Will. I started working as an assistant at Amber Dental in the spring of 2018 shortly after I graduated from Benedictine University. As a current applicant to dental school, I am thrilled to be working for Dr. Koehne. He has been a great role model and he is always willing to teach me more. Outside of dentistry, I am passionate about music and the outdoors. I enjoy playing the piano and guitar, fishing and bicycling.

I wanted to get into medicine since I was in 8th grade. I have a biology background from Loyola University of Chicago. About my sophomore year in college, my advisor questioned me as to why I wanted to be a physician and not a dentist. I gave them all the pros of being a physician and the cons of being a dentist, but then they opened my eyes to the other side of the coin.

In the early 80s, physicians were married to their offices. They really couldnt have a family life and I want to have a family. I wanted to be able to coach a soccer team or be a cub scout leader, girl scout leader, or whatever. And I wanted family to be number one and the practice to be second, and dentistry allowed me to do that. I dont think medicine would have allowed me to do that. So thats the reason I chose dentistry. But I enjoy helping people and just changing their way of looking at the world and the world the way the world looks at them.

I graduated in 1984 with a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from the University of Illinois in Chicago Dental school. And Ive taken a lot of continuing education mandatory in Illinois. Ive done a lot of other training and education in everything from economics to implant restoration, to sleep medicine. My wife is my partner in the dental office. She graduated in 1988 from the University of Illinois Dental School. We started our business in Wheaton in 1989 and got a small 23-chair office. In 2005, we expanded: we built our own office and have a lot more features that allow us to offer more services to our patients.

Diplomate status in the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine has changed over the years. It used to require strictly case reporting and an exam, etc. The Academy changed the profile of how you could apply for Diplomate status about five years ago. It requires over 60 hours of in-classroom lecture, reading hundreds and hundreds of pages of journal and research articles, and various practical exercises, because you need to understand the subject matter and be able to apply it.

Once you do that youre still not a Diplomateyou have to pass the Diplomate exam. Its four hours long, and you have to show that you understand the concepts of how and when to treat patients for obstructive sleep apnea with oral appliance therapy. You have to understand the physiology, anatomy, medicine, dentistry, and everything else that goes into treating patients with oral appliance therapy. Additionally, Diplomate status requires 25 hours of continuing education every year, specifically in sleep medicine, to maintain your status as being in Good Standing with the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine.

Its not just Diplomate status that improves patient outcomes, its the training that goes along with it. If you dont have the correct training, you dont know what youre doing or why youre doing it. If youve got someone who has a sleep breathing disorder because of obstructions and youre putting hardware in their mouth, that could actually make the situation worse, not better. So you have to have the training, you have to know what youre doing and why youre doing it and how to achieve the best result.

And you do that through training and having the ability and the resources to keep current with industry information, current diagnostic techniques, current impression techniques, current equipment. You cannot be making these appliances without having some sort of formal training and so you know what you need to do and how you need to do it. There are over 150 different appliances on the market. You need to know which one to pick for which patient. Its not a one-appliance-fits-all solution. There are different appliances that will suit different circumstances for different patients.

Patients need to know that their dentist for dental sleep medicine has had training. The easiest way to ascertain that is to look for the Diplomate status of the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine. That can assure them that their dentist has had training and that they know how to properly fit and calibrate an oral appliance for optimal outcome and maximum medical improvement. They also know how to communicate back and forth with their physician and their general dentist.

If youre not a patient of mine, I make sure that I communicate well with your general dentist, wherever you came from, to let them know what Im doing and to consider me a part of your medical/dental team. There may be some side effects from treatmentwe watch for those and any problems with any of the appliances. Their general dentist is welcome to contact me. Same thing with their physician. We keep the lines of communication open. So a Diplomate in the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine knows how to communicate efficiently and effectively and properly.

The biggest obstacle I see, the biggest challenge, is helping physicians understand that they shouldnt feel that we are in competition for their patients. Were not any more competitors in the sleep breathing disorder market than the CPAP manufacturers or the techs that are fitting people with CPAP machines.

In 2015, the American Academy of Sleep Physicians posted a policy change that for mild and moderate sleep apnea, the treatment of choice, the gold standard for mild and moderate sleep apnea is an oral appliance. And that for severe sleep apnea its supposed to be a CPAP machine. If the patient cannot or will not tolerate a CPAP, then you need to offer an oral appliance.

I partner with physicians to make sure that the patient is getting maximum medical improvement, and if Im having a problem I communicate with them and get their take on it. So I feel that thats the biggest hurdle that we have is educating the physicians to start partnering with dental sleep medicine doctors.

Obstructive sleep apnea is a terminal condition. It will kill you over time and either youll have a stroke or heart attack, your diabetes or blood pressure or hypertension will become unmanageable and you will die. And its the result of the sleep breathing disorder, especially obstructive sleep apnea. It causes enough changes and disruptions in the body that it is terminal. So I find it extremely satisfying that I can help save lives, not just simply make people feel better about smiling and change their societal image. I can actually help save their life. That is absolutely phenomenal. And I see why the physicians get such a high knowing that they can influence peoples lives that way. So that is the most rewarding thing that I can think of.

Patients that are suffering from obstructive sleep apnea, or a sleep breathing disorder, restless leg syndrome, insomnia, narcolepsy, any of those conditions that are considered sleep breathing disorders, and sleep disorders, need to have a conversation with a sleep physician. There are a lot of treatment modalities that are very successful and have been perfected over time. They dont theyre not necessarily destined to having to be tied to a CPAP machine for the rest of their lives. There are alternatives.

Some surgical options can work for some people. There are some different types of CPAP machines that will work that are less intrusive to their lives. And theres oral appliance therapy, but we can usually find something that will help them. Sometimes its just a modification of behavior. Its some counseling, or its medication changes. So they need to start that conversation with a sleep physician to find out what they need to do to determine what their problem is and how to fix it.

I, myself, have had a lot of dental work done, so Ive spent a lot of hours on the patient side of the dental chair. Fortunately, my wife is the best and she helps me immensely! I know what things feel like, what they smell like, what they sound like, what they taste like. Whats going through their mind at the time. How vulnerable you feel because Im working in that personal space and that can be awkward or uncomfortable for people. I try to be as well-meaning and understanding.

I try to assess the patient and see what their concerns are and what their needs are. I know how to respond, how to try to put them at ease because I understand what their concerns may be. I think Im able to do a much better job because Ive been on the receiving end of treatment, and that makes me understand and respond empathetically to my patients.

Were definitely a service-oriented office. We want to make sure that people have the best possible experience they possibly can with receiving the best possible dentistry that they can. We always do whats best for the patient, and if I cant provide that service then I find the avenue for them to get that service done in the best way possible. I make whatever recommendations or whatever referrals I need to get that patient taken care of correctly.