CENTER FOR FACIAL PAIN
Robert J. Mitchell, DDS, MS, Director
Dr. Mitchell received his DDS degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1972. After two years in the US Army Dental Corps, he practiced general dentistry in Portland, Maine for 13 years. In 1984, he completed a two-year research training fellowship in orofacial pain and TM Disorders which was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. This program involved extensive training in neuromuscular physiology and pain mechanisms. It also provided extensive clinical training in TM Disorders and trigeminal neuropathies. Dr. Mitchell received his Masters degree in neuromuscular physiology as part of this program.
Since completion of the program, Dr. Mitchell has maintained a clinical practice limited to orofacial pain, establishing in 1986, a multidisciplinary orofacial pain center, the Center For Facial Pain. He has been a member of the faculty of Harvard University School of Dental Medicine, and is former Co-director of the Harvard Center for Orofacial Pain at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, He continues to lecture in orofacial pain at Harvard.
Dr. Mitchell was a member of the American Academy of Orofacial Pain as well as the American Dental Association, the Maine Dental Association, and the Greater Portland Dental Society. He was attending staff at Maine Medical Center.
In addition to his extensive clinical experience, Dr. Mitchell has maintained an active role in research. He is a member of the American and International Associations for Dental Research. His current research interests include the exteroceptive suppression reflex in trigeminal pain disorders, as well as clinical outcome studies in physical medicine. He has been a member of the Medical Research Committee of Maine Medical Center.
Dr. Mitchell has lectured to various groups in the State, as well as throughout the country. He has presented educational programs to dentists, physicians, physical therapists, dental hygienists, and insurance groups.
