About David G. Austin, D.D.S., M.S.
Dr. David Austin is in a particularly unique position because he is the only practicing dentist in Ohio with his formal training and credentials.
The M.S. after Dr. David Austin's name represents a Master's of Science Degree. To earn this advanced degree, he was formally trained in a combination 24-month Pain Fellowship and 3-year master's program at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Newark, NJ.
He is certified at the Diplomat level by both the American Academy of Pain Management and by the American Board of Orofacial Pain.
Physical medicine was a core requirement of his M.S. degree program and his practice is rated as Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation by the Health Care Finance Administration. His practice focuses on diagnosis and management of orofacial pain, headache, sleep and temporomandibular disorders.
For seven years, Dr. Austin served as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurology at The Ohio State University's Department of Neurology, having been approved by multiple credentialing committees in the OSU Medical School. Until July 1998, he also was Assistant Director of the OSU Headache Clinic.
Dr. Austin treats the upper quarter -- head, neck and shoulders -- when it is in pain and/or dysfunction. Much, if not all, of his treatment is provided for medical conditions such as headache, neck, face, eye and ear pain and/or dysfunction of these structures, including those of non-dental origin.
About Orofacial Pain
Orofacial Pain is a relatively new program in dentistry that is an outgrowth of basic research on pain done during the 1970s and 1980s by the National Institutes of Health and other research and educational facilities. Orofacial pain, headache and temporomandibular disorders evolved as an area needing attention because the trigeminal system is an intricate part of the pain system of the body.
The discipline of orofacial pain includes the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of patients with complex chronic orofacial pain and dysfunction disorders, oromotor and jaw behavior disorders, and chronic head, neck and facial pain, as well as the pursuit of knowledge of the underlying pathophysiology and mechanisms of these disorders.
Specifically, the field includes diagnosis and treatment of neuropathic orofacial pain disorders, neurovascular orofacial pain disorders, chronic regional pain syndrome, complex masticatory and cervical neuromuscular pain disorders, primary headache disorders, pain from complex temporomandibular joint disorders, burning mouth, pain secondary to orofacial cancer and AIDS, orofacial dyskinesias and dystonias, orofacial sleep disorders, and other complex disorders causing persistent pain and dysfunction of the orofacial structures.
