Practice Philosophy

Dr. Steven D. Bender, Director of the Clinical Center for Facial Pain and Sleep Medicine, is committed to a conservative, evidence based approach to treat pain of the head, face and temporomandibular joints. He has found that by listening carefully to his patients’ concerns, and thoroughly examining and evaluating them, most patients respond to a conservative, well-defined treatment approach with a positive outcome.

Many pain sufferers have gone to multiple health care providers in search of answers and relief with unsuccessful results. Dr. Bender understands this frustration from his own experience with head and neck pain. Due to Dr. Bender's extensive training and experience in facial pain, headaches and sleep disorders, he is able to diagnose and manage pain conditions of the head and face that may be unfamiliar to many other medical and dental specialists.

Dr. Bender's distinct ability to educate his patients about the nature and cause of their pain and/or dysfunction concerns facilitates a unique patient-doctor partnership during the management process. Once the patient embraces this partnership and takes control of this aspect of his or her life, the healing process seems to accelerate.