The purpose of this proposal is to request funds to support the 1993 Scientific Congress on Temporomandibular Disorders and Orofacial Pain at the Camelback Inn in Scottsdale, Arizona on February 12-14, 1993. The congress will be a landmark event because it will be the first time that leaders in research and patient care in this area will be brought together to advance and disseminate cutting edge knowledge of the clinical characteristics, epidemiology, pathophysiology, and management of orofacial pain disorders including temporomandibular disorders. Chronic orofacial pain disorders are very common in the general population causing facial pain, earaches, headaches, and jaw dysfunction in nearly half of the population with about 5 to 10% have a problem severe enough to require care. In addition, because orofacial structures have close associations with functions of eating, communication, sight, and hearing as well as form the basis for appearance, self- esteem and expression, persistent pain of orofacial origin can deeply affect an individual. Because of this high prevalence and personal impact, orofacial pain(OFP) is emerging as a distinct field of clinical and scientific inquiry. However, dissemination of scientific knowledge to the clinical community is poor and patient care is often based on trial and error resulting in disastrous iatrogenic consequences of treatment, a rise in malpractice, confusion over a myriad of new untested devices and procedures, and proliferation of self-proclaimed continuing education gurus. To improve dissemination of knowledge in this field and advance future research, the American Academy of Orofacial Pain has organized this scientific meeting. The format of the meeting will be consistent with other scientific meetings and include plenary sessions, scientific abstracts, small group workshops/seminars, and organizational meetings. In addition, a call for papers has invited others to submit abstracts for potential presentation as posters at the meeting.
The specific aims of this meeting are to bring together clinicians, educators, and researchers in the field to; 1)transfer scientific knowledge to clinical practice by presenting recent scientific advances and discussing their relevance to clinical practice, 2)stimulate further research in the field by defining future research directions and poorly understood clinical issues and discussing them with clinicians and researchers, 3)improve communication between clinicians, educators, and researchers by bringing them together in the same meeting to provide a concerted effort to develop the field.
