Sowmya Ananthan BDS, DMD, MSD

Dr. Sowmya Ananthan is a graduate of the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine, earning both her DMD and MSD degrees there. Prior to that, she earned a Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) degree from India. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Orofacial Pain and a Fellow of the American Academy of Orofacial Pain. Dr. Ananthan teaches in the Division of Orofacial Pain at the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine, in Newark, NJ, where she supervises the residents providing clinical care to patients with complex orofacial pain problems. She has also been tasked with setting up the Dental Sleep Medicine program. In addition to her teaching responsibilities at Rutgers, she is also an attending at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, where she is the section chief for Orofacial Pain and Temporomandibular Disorders.

She treats patients at the Rutgers Health faculty practice in New Brunswick, NJ as well as in her private practice in Red Bank, NJ. She serves as a consultant for many insurance companies to provide Independent Medical Examinations. Dr. Ananthan is an examiner with the American Board of Orofacial Pain and serves as a reviewer for many journals, in addition to being extensively published. Her areas of research include the relationship between sleep and pain, novel therapeutic modalities such as topical medications for the treatment of neuropathic pain, new injection techniques such as the twin nerve block.

She is a mentor to many residents in the Master's program, helping them with their research projects and thesis preparation and defense. She has presented abstracts at many national and international level meetings. Dr. Ananthan is a sought out speaker who lectures widely on orofacial pain topics. She has a knack for distilling information and presenting it in a manner that is easily understandable. Attendees of her various CE courses always leave with clinical pearls that they can use in their practices right away. She is happily married and has two children. In her spare time, she loves spending time outdoors with her family and traveling to new destinations.