The California Dental Association’s premiere monthly publication highlighted USC School of Dentistry’s newest specialty areas, featuring articles from faculty of the school’s Orofacial Pain and Oral Medicine advanced program. 

The August 2006 issue of the CDA Journal was guest-edited by program director Glenn Clark, and included articles from Clark as well as fellow USCSD faculty members Jack Broussard, Reyes Enciso, Satish Kumar, Ana Cristina Lotaif, Saravanan Ram, Werner Shintaku, and Piedad Suarez.  Articles discussed the latest research in orofacial chronic pain disorders, including advances in diagnoses, medications and diagnostic imaging.

The study of orofacial pain is still a relatively new area in dentistry, and chronic orofacial pain is often misunderstood and misdiagnosed by the general dental community. Clark hopes this issue will educate general practitioners as well as provide them with a local resource for information and place to refer patients with chronic pain.

“The Orofacial Pain and Oral Medicine program deals with what I describe as the other 400 diseases of the mouth—pain conditions, muscle and arthritis, growth disorders, neurological disorders and the multiple hard and soft tissue diseases,” Clark says. “There are a lot of things out there that need to be recognized and treated appropriately. There is a lot of information to know about, which is why we need a residency program.”

USCSD’s Orofacial pain program is only one of a handful in the United States, and the only one that combines the in-depth study of orofacial pain with oral medicine.  This was a distinct perspective, Piedad Suarez says, that made the USC program faculty in a unique position to write on this field.  Suarez, who wrote on her research in burning mouth syndrome, says that treating orofacial pain patients requires a delicate understanding of both the physical and mental effects of their diseases. 

“There’s the physical component, the social component and the psychological component.  Their disorder affects many aspects of our patients’ lives.  It’s not just an isolated problem,” she says.

The psychological impact that chronic pain produces is one of the most difficult parts of the field, Clark adds. “You are also trying to help people with anxiety and depression.  You sometimes have to get them into mental health treatment.  But finding help for people who don’t have the resources, it’s very frustrating,” he says.

Saravanan Ram, who published his research on oral medications, infusions and injections, says that many times patients undergo needless and painful treatment and extractions when pain medications will suffice.  Ultimately, he adds, it’s the patients who suffer.

“It’s a wonderful experience trying to help these patients because nobody is really helping them,” he says. “All of our patients with chronic pain are complex diagnostic problems.  Many things can contribute to the cause of pain.  We try our best to figure out what’s going on.”

Clark says that the response to the CDA Journal has been positive. 

“I’m very proud of this issue.  The knowledge in it isn’t routine dental stuff.  It’s up-to-date, the latest information.  Both dentists and non-dentists, I hope, will realize there’s a lot more to this field than meets the eye,” he says.

The August 2006 issue of the CDA Journal can be accessed by CDA members online at www.cda.org/publications.