Parker E. Mahan Facial Pain Center

A Tribute to Parker E. Mahan

Becoming a dentist was not something Parker E. Mahan dreamed about as a child, it was something that evolved. In 1944, two weeks after he graduated from high school in Hearne, Texas, he enrolled in Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University. On a wartime speed-up program, he finished a year and a half of college before he turned 18. One week before his 18th birthday, he joined the United States Navy where he studied elementary electricity and radio material and aviation electronics. He later served in an experimental squadron in antisubmarine warfare.

During his time at Texas A and M and in the US Navy, Parker Mahan discovered one very important thing about himself: he was interested in working with people, not things. He had always admired his childhood dentist, Dr. John Waltman of Hearne, Texas, who had been a leader in the community and had served as role model for Mahan; so, after serving more than four years in the Navy, Mahan enrolled in the Emory University School of Dentistry in Atlanta, Georgia, where he earned his D.D.S., graduating in 1955 at the top of his class.

As a junior dental student at Emory, Dr. Mahan was enlisted to teach anatomy to the freshman class. For two years he taught anatomy and fixed and removable prosthodontics. Mahan's ability, interest and work paid off. He was awarded a National Institute of Dental Research traineeship to work toward a Ph.D. in physiology at the University of Rochester, in New York. He earned his Ph.D. and returned to Emory University, in 1962, to teach anatomy, biochemistry and physiology courses and to treat pain and dysfunction patients, rising through the ranks to become a full professor in 1970. He also served as coordinator of Basic Sciences for Dentistry at Emory until 1971 when he came to the University of Florida as founding chairman in the Department of Basic Dental Sciences, which later became the Department of Oral Biology. In 1984, he was named the director of the college's Dental Occlusion and Facial Pain Center, where he served for eight years. During that time, he was named a Distinguished Service Professor by the University of Florida, in recognition of outstanding teaching accomplishments and service to the university; and, in 1985, he returned to Atlanta to accept the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Emory University Dental Alumni Association. In 199O, he was named the first occupant of the University of Florida College of Dentistry Academy One Hundred Eminent Scholar Chair, a position he held until he retired in 1992.

Parker Mahan's love for people and his work with patients suffering from craniofacial pain gave him a vision for a College of Dentistry Dental Occlusion and Facial Pain Center, a vision he shared with Dr. Harry Lundeen. In 1983, they established the initial guidelines for just such a center. The center would offer a multidisciplinary approach to patient evaluation which was both comprehensive in coverage and economical in patient time. The center would admit patients only at the request of a health professional for diagnostic opinions and to offer treatment suggestions to the primary dentist or physician. Research to further knowledge in the field of chronic pain would be integral to the work of the center. The ability to coordinate research efforts, to establish a uniform data collection system, and to expand the educational involvement to include a postdoctoral residency would also be an essential part of the program.

Parker Mahan's desire to help people and his vision of how to do so, brought about the existence of the University of Florida Health Science Center Dental Occlusion and Facial Pain Center, in the College of Dentistry. In 1984, the Board of Regents established the center, and Dr. Mahan's vision was underway. Today, the center is a successful comprehensive care center for patients suffering chronic facial and neck pain to receive the help they need. Help comes from faculty from dental departments of fixed and removable prosthodontics, endodontics, oral medicine and oral radiology, and oral and maxillofacial surgery. Other areas of the University Health Science Center, such as physical therapy, clinical psychology and anesthesiology, actively participate in caring for these patients. Psychiatry, neurosurgery, otolaryngology, and pharmacology are also available for consultation. Dr. Parker Mahan became interested in dentistry by the process of elimination. He found that chemical and civil engineering at Texas A and M and electronics in the Navy were too impersonal, so he knew a career in the physical sciences was not for him. While he had always enjoyed working with his hands, he also wanted to work directly helping people. Dentistry allowed him to accomplish this. Not only could he help people suffering from dental and facial pain problems, he could work with students, teaching them in the classroom and through his books and lectures, the knowledge he had acquired, over the years. His activity in continuing dental education is exemplified by a) his world renown head and neck dissection courses which have brought a higher degree of understanding and appreciation of physiology, anatomy and pathology. He has been the leader in raising the general dentists' level of awareness of the science of dentistry and, b) his commitment to the L. D. Pankey Institute where he has taught anatomy, physiology and pathology of the head and neck to thousands of dentists from around the world. His lectures have always been among the most beneficial and sought after at the Institute.

Today, Parker Mahan is recognized and admired by colleagues, students and staff for his love for people, his superior expertise in his field, for his leadership in the community and, perhaps most of all, for his dedication to teaching, passing on his knowledge to the next generation.