Joel Epstein—Los Angeles, CA

Professor of Surgery

Dr. Epstein graduated from Dentistry in 1976 from the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. He received a Certificate in Oral Medicine and Master of Science Degree in Dentistry from the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, USA, in 1979. He is a Fellow of the College of Dental Surgeons of Canada in Oral Medicine/Oral Pathology and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Oral Medicine and was an examiner and President of the Board of Oral Medicine.

He was Professor and Head of the Department of Oral Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences and Director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Oral Cancer Biology, Prevention and Treatment at the Chicago Cancer Center, College of Medicine, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology and Head and Surgery of the University of Illinois at Chicago and on staff at Rush Medical Center and Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital in Chicago. Prior to relocating to Chicago, he was Professor of Oral Medicine and Director of the Graduate Program in Oral Medicine, and the DECOD (Dental Care for the Disabled) Program, at the University of Washington, Seattle WA. Dr. Epstein was attending in Oral Medicine at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. He was on the medical/dental staff of the British Columbia Cancer Agency; and Head of the Department of Dentistry at Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Centre; as well as on staff at other teaching hospitals in Vancouver, British Columbia, and a Clinical Professor in the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of British Columbia.

He is currently Professor of Surgery, Department of Surgery and Medical Director, Cancer Dentistry, Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai Health System, Los Angeles, CA and Medical Director, Dental Oncology Service, Division of Surgery, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA. He conducts a private referral practice in Oral Medicine and Oral Oncology (Oralmedicinepacific.com). Dr. Epstein has published in the area of oncology, infectious disease, facial pain and general areas of Oral Medicine, with more than eight hundred contributions to the literature in the form of papers, abstracts, text books, and book chapters. Research Gate reports 107,223 article online “reads” and 33,707 journal citations of published papers, and research interest score of 15,717 (higher than 99% of members of Research Gate) as of May 2023.

Dr. Epstein is married to Geena, a Registered Nurse who has worked in hospitals, co-directed a Lipid clinic in Seattle and a study coordinator in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Northwestern University and is currently an office manager and clinical research coordinator in Los Angeles. They have three sons, Josh has earned his PhD at the University of Southern California in pharmaceutical economics and Masters in Economics and is CEO of Statevi a pharmaceutical economics consulting firm in Los Angeles. Matthew completed dentistry at the University of Washington and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Patterson, New Jersey and in oral and facial surgery practice in Seattle, WA.. Daniel completed his Bachelor’s degree in philosophy and business at the University of Colorado, Boulder and is President and CEO of the Unreasonable Group, a global social entrepreneurship program based in Boulder CO.