Orofacial Pain and Oral Medicine (OFPOM) Clinic

The Orofacial Pain and Oral Medicine Clinic specializes in treating patients with oral disease and oral pain, including chronic headaches, teeth grinding, jaw disorders, and breathing issues. It is part of the Norris Dental Science Center that provides a wide range of oral health care services to patients, from routine checkups and cleanings to fitting braces and treating oral disease.

More specifically, the following conditions will be diagnosed and treated or appropriately referred to specialists by our residents at the OFPOM Clinic:

• Chronic facial pain (neurogenous pain & headache)
• Snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnea
• Temporomandibular Derangements and Arthritis
• Various Oral Soft and Hard Tissue Diseases of Jaws and Mouth
• Salivary Gland Disorders
• Oral Cancer and Precancerous Lesions

At the OFPOM Clinic, dental students and residents (dentists in training), under the supervision of our expert faculty, provide high-quality care at reduced rates. Since we are a teaching institution and care is delivered in an instructional environment, treatment times are sometimes longer than in a private practice setting.

The clinic draws people from the entire Southern California metro region, which contains more than 22 million people. Because of our position on the West Coast of the U.S., we have one of the most diverse populations in the world — for example, there are more than 127 languages spoken in the Los Angeles Unified School District alone.

This diversity is reflected in the patients that come into our clinic, meaning that our students are exposed to an amazing number of treatment situations. We consider this to be one of the greatest advantages to learning at USC, because this provides our students with the opportunity to observe, diagnose and treat patients that come in with rare or unique conditions.