Email: justin.durham@ncl.ac.uk

Research profile and key clinical specialties

Justin is a Professor of Orofacial Pain and Head of the School of Dental Sciences at Newcastle University and an Honorary Consultant Oral Surgeon at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne’s Hospitals’ NHS Foundation Trust in the UK. 

His primary research interests are in orofacial pain both at the first and second translational research gaps.

He has wide experience in a variety of methodologies involved in health services research. He leads an active orofacial pain research group which has wide-ranging international collaborations and that is truly multidisciplinary in nature.

As pain is multidimensional and involves not only perception of intensity, but also more wider reaching effects such as how it makes you feel or act our research program involves many different disciplines including: clinical dentistry such as oral surgery, endodontology; clinical medicine, clinical nutrition, and clinical psychology; health sciences such as health economics, medical sociology; biomedical sciences such as neuroscience and imaging and neurophysiology.

We address both translational gaps: at the first translational gap we are looking to identify the factors that may predict transition from acute to persistent pain and how to address these factors in order to help prevent persistent pain; at the second translational gap we are looking to improve care pathways in both acute and persistent pain and develop new evidence-based interventions to prevent and alleviate both types of pain.

We actively seek to ensure any wider relevance of our findings is realised through collaborations with groups working in areas outside of the orofacial region.

Two key publications

• Häggman-Henrikson, B., Liv, P., Ilgunas, A., Visscher, C.M., Lobbezoo, F., Durham, J. & Lövgren, A. (2020) Increasing gender differences in the prevalence and chronification of orofacial pain in the population. Pain, DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001872. PMID: 32187116
• Durham, J., Shen, J., Breckons, M., Steele, J.G., Araujo-Soares, V., Exley, C. & Vale, L. (2016) Healthcare Cost and Impact of Persistent Orofacial Pain: The DEEP Study Cohort. J Dent Res, 95, 1147-1154. DOI: 10.1177/0022034516648088. PMID: 27154734

Possible PhD projects

Open to suggestions in the scope explained above.

More information

Justin has a depth of experience in supporting doctoral and intermediate fellowship applications through own research group and as Faculty of Medical Sciences’ director of fellowships (2015-19). He currently sits on a NIHR fellowship panel and has previous experience as member and then chair of another NIHR panel.

Keywords: Orofacial, dental, surgery, pain, endodontology, Justin, Durham, Newcastle

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