Temporomandibular Disorders Education for Awareness and Management (TEAM)

Dr. Steve Bender is a retired Associate Professor from Texas A&M University College of Dentistry in Dallas Texas where he directed the Facial Pain and Sleep Medicine Clinic. Currently he serves as a guest lecturer for the LSU orofacial pain residency program. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Orofacial Pain and has earned Fellowships in the American Academy of Orofacial Pain, the American Headache Society, and the American College of Dentists. In addition, he is a past president of the American Academy of Orofacial Pain. He earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas, Texas in 1986 and then studied orofacial pain and temporomandibular disorders at the Parker E Mahan Facial Pain Center at the University of Florida College of Dentistry, Gainesville Florida from 1998 to 2000. Since that time, his practice was limited to the diagnosis and management of orofacial pains. Dr. Bender currently serves as an Associate Editor for CRANIO® The Journal of Craniomandibular & Sleep Practice. He has also published numerous peer reviewed articles and contributed multiple book chapters. Dr. Bender is a frequent invited presenter for both dental and medical conferences.

Dr. Chakarvarty is an orofacial pain specialist who is a diplomate of the American academy of Orofacial pain and American academy of dental sleep medicine. She earned her Doctorate of dental surgery from New York College of dentistry in 2014, following which she worked as a general for 9 years before going back to pursue a 2 year residency in orofacial pain at the University of Kentucky. Since then, she has limited her practice to the diagnosis and management of orofacial pain at her private practice in Austin, Texas.

Emily Kahnert, PT, DPT, PhD, CCTT, is a physical therapist and clinician scientist in the Temporomandibular Disorders (TMD), Orofacial Pain and Dental Sleep Medicine Clinic at the University of Minnesota (UMN) School of Dentistry and adjunct faculty in the UMN Division of Physical Therapy. Her 20 years of clinical practice have been exclusively focused on treating TMD and orofacial pain in interdisciplinary settings and her research interests include classification of orofacial pain, telerehabilitation and TMJ biomechanics.

Dr. Moreno Hay is currently the Division Chief and Program Director of Orofacial Pain at the College of Dentistry, University of Kentucky. She is an Associate Professor at the College of Dentistry, University of Kentucky. She obtained her dental degree from the University Complutense of Madrid, School of Dentistry (Spain). Dr. Moreno graduated from the 2-year CODA approved program in Orofacial Pain at the University of Kentucky in 2013. She became a Diplomate of the American Board of Orofacial Pain in 2015, and Diplomate of the American Board Dental Sleep Medicine. She is currently the President Elect of the AAOP and Chair of the Scientific Committee of the SEDCYDO. She is also an active member of the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine. She has published several research articles in peer reviewed journals, book chapters, and has lectured in scientific national and international meetings.

Dr. Mariona Mulet Pradera is an orofacial pain specialist in St Paul, MN. She is board-certified by the American Board of Orofacial Pain (ABOP) and by the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine (ABDSM). She has dedicated her career to the field of orofacial pain since 2001, and provides care to orofacial pain patients in a multidisciplinary clinical setting at Health Partners Group in Minnesota. She is also the Associate Program Director of the Orofacial Pain Graduate Program at the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry. She is currently the immediate past president of the American Academy of Orofacial Pain (AAOP).

Thomas Weber is the Director of Orofacial Pain at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. He received his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from Indiana University (2006) and then completed an Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency at Wright-Patterson Medical Center (2007). Dr. Weber received his certificate in Orofacial Pain (2014) and Masters in Dental Science (2015) from the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry. He is an assistant professor in the Uniformed Services University Postgraduate Dental College and an instructor in the Air Force’s Comprehensive Dentistry residency. Dr. Weber is an officer and fellow of the American Academy of Orofacial Pain and a diplomate of the American Board of Orofacial Pain.

Dr. Boggero is the Director of Psychological Services and Director of Research at the University of Kentucky Orofacial Pain Clinic. He also has joint appointments in Anesthesiology and in Psychology. He completed his undergraduate education at UCLA and obtained his Ph. D. in clinical psychology from the University of Kentucky, with a graduate certificate in biostatistics. After his Ph.D. he completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center where he worked with children and families with chronic pain. His research interests are in developing brief psychological interventions for improving pain, sleep, and fatigue in patients with chronic pain. His work has been funded by the NIH and the American Psychological Association among other organizations. He has over 100 publications or poster presentations, and has been invited to give talks across the country and the world on psychological management of chronic orofacial pain. He is currently working on an NIDCR K23 award which aims to develop a brief telehealth treatment for patient with chronic masticatory muscle pain.  In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with family, playing soccer, hiking, cooking, and reading. He would love to play you chess online (but he is not very good).

Dr. Jack Botros is a senior resident of orofacial pain and oral medicine at the University of Southern California. He earned his dental degree at Alexandria University, Egypt, then he completed a Master of Science focused on temporomandibular disorders at McGill University, Canada. His research interests include TMD comorbidities, neuropathic pain, and bruxism. Dr. Botros has published in peer-reviewed journals and won several academic awards.

Dr. Alberto Herrero Babiloni is a clinician-scientist and dentist from Valencia, Spain, with training in orofacial pain, dental sleep medicine, neuroscience, and translational clinical research. He holds a Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) from the University of Valencia and completed a Master of Science and specialty residency in Orofacial Pain and Dental Sleep Medicine at the University of Minnesota. He earned his PhD in Experimental Medicine at McGill University under the supervision of Dr. Marc O. Martel and Dr. Gilles J. Lavigne, where his research focused on sleep-pain interactions, temporomandibular disorders, and translational approaches to complex chronic pain, including non-invasive brain stimulation. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow under the supervision of Dr. Nadia Gosselin at Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal and the Université de Montréal, and also serves as a Research Associate at CHUM. His current research focuses on biomarkers of disease in relation to sleep and pain in complex populations such as cancer or neurodegenerative disorders.

Dr. Marcela Romero Reyes is a clinical professor and the Director of the Brotman Facial Pain Clinic at the Department of Neural and Pain Sciences, University of Maryland, School of Dentistry. She is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in the fields of orofacial pain and headache disorders. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Orofacial Pain, Fellow of the American Academy of Orofacial Pain (AAOP) and fellow of the American Headache Society (AHS) and she is the former AHS chair of the special section of TMD, Cervical Spine and Orofacial Pain. Dr. Romero has been distinguished by numerous awards including the prestigious Steven B. Graff-Radford Orofacial Pain and Headache lectureship by the AHS. She is also the co-editor of the 7th edition of the AAOP Orofacial Pain, Guidelines for Assessment, Diagnosis and Management. ‌

Dr. Romero graduated from the School of Dentistry at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She obtained her PhD in Oral biology and Orofacial Pain and Dysfunction certificate at UCLA, School of Dentistry and postdoctoral training in neuroscience with a focus in primary headaches at the UCLA Headache Research and Treatment Program now known as the Goldberg Migraine Program in the department of Neurology, David Geffen, School of Medicine. Prior to coming to the University of Maryland, Dr. Romero was an Assistant Professor at the New York University College of Dentistry in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Radiology and Medicine. Dr. Romero was the Director of the NYU Orofacial and Head Pain clinic and the Director of the Advanced Program for International Dentists in Oral Medicine & Orofacial Pain.

Alex Vaughan, DDS, MS is a board certified Orofacial Pain specialist and co-founder of Virginia Total Sleep in Richmond Virginia. Having started his dental career in the front office, he was “insurance minded” from the beginning. Seeing the urgent need for dental sleep medicine and orofacial pain services, he co-founded his practice with Dr. Michael Pagano on the foundation of medical billing and cutting-edge technology. By combining electronic medical records and his billing expertise, Virginia Total Sleep has reduced patient costs by 90% all while maximizing revenue and case acceptance rate.