Board Certified — American Board of Orofacial Pain
Dr. Thanuja Ramanna completed a 2-year residency program in Orofacial Pain at UCLA School of Dentistry. She is one of the 350–400 board-certified Orofacial Pain doctors in the USA.
She completed her post-graduate degree in Oral Pathology and Microbiology in India, where she spent 8 years as an educator training undergraduate and post-graduate students. As a professor, her expertise centered on diagnosing benign and malignant lesions of the oral cavity.
She later relocated to Memphis and completed her Master's in Biology, focusing her research on CKLF — a biological clock modulator gene of the sleep-wake cycle — using cutting-edge CRISPR-Cas9 technology. She was subsequently appointed as faculty at the University of Memphis.
She later served as Assistant Professor at California Northstate University before dedicating her career entirely to Orofacial Pain practice.
Too often, patients experiencing jaw pain, facial pain, headaches, and sleep-related issues are referred from one office to another without receiving focused treatment from providers trained specifically in these conditions.
I founded this orofacial pain practice to change that — to be a clear, specialized destination for people in Portland who need someone who understands these conditions deeply, takes the time to listen, and builds a personalized plan centered on their long-term health and quality of life.
Every new patient gets a full consultation — not a brief screening. I want to understand your symptoms, your history, what you've already tried, and what your day-to-day life looks like. That context shapes everything that follows.
My treatment approach starts with the most conservative, reversible options available. For most TMJ and sleep conditions, that means oral appliance therapy, physical therapy guidance, and lifestyle adjustments — before considering anything more involved.
If your condition needs a different specialist — a neurologist, ENT, or sleep physician — I will tell you that directly and help with the referral. I would rather send you to the right person than keep you in a treatment that isn't working.
I explain what I'm seeing, what the evidence says, and what the realistic expectations are for your specific situation. You won't leave an appointment unsure of what comes next or why.
Book a consultation and Dr. Ramanna will go through everything with you — no pressure, no commitment beyond that first appointment.
