German oral and maxillofacial surgeon and associate professor
Rüdiger Emshoff (born April 5, 1960 in Mülheim an der Ruhr) is a German oral and maxillofacial surgeon and associate professor at the Medical University of Innsbruck, where he is head of the Orofacial Pain and Temporomandibular Disorder Unit. Emshoff is known for his work in the field of chronic orofacial pain management with a focus on the development of non-invasive and minimally-invasive methods in the diagnosis and treatment of temporomandibular joint dysfunction.
Early life and education.
Emshoff is the son of Horst Werner and Gisela Sophie-Luise Emshoff of Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany. Rüdiger Emshoff studied medicine, philosophy and dentistry at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf and at the Semmelweis-Universität in Budapest. He earned a medical doctorate from the University of Düsseldorf in Germany in 1987. In 1990 he received a dental doctorate from the Semmelweis University in Budapest. Emshoff completed his residency in oral and maxillofacial surgery (1991–1998) at the Medical University of Innsbruck. He is board certified in oral and maxillofacial surgery.
Scientific career.
In 2001, Emshoff became an associate professor in oral and maxillofacial surgery at the Medical University of Innsbruck. Since 2001 Emshoff has been a consultant at the University Hospital for Cranio-Maxillofacial and Oral Surgery at the Medical University of Innsbruck. Since 1998 he has been the head of the Orofacial Pain and Temporomandibular Disorder Unit.
Personal and family.
In 2002, Rüdiger Emshoff married to the doctor Iris Emshoff and has three children with her (Sophia, Ida Marie Gunilla, and Niels Ingmar Rüdiger). Together, the family lives in Innsbruck.
Clinical research contributions.
His clinical research focused on the development of rehabilitation methods of treating chronic facial pain. Also he did research on non-invasive imaging techniques to detect internal derangments and degenerative diseases of the temporomandibular joint.
In 1997, he introduced ultrasonography as a new temporomandibular joint imaging modality, a technique which in the following decade has become one of the most recommended methods because of its noninvasiveness, inexpensiveness, and ability to evaluate the integrity of the temporomandibular joint.
In the early 2000s, he pioneered the application of minimally-invasive temporomandibular joint surgery which has become a standard treatment for certain types of chronic temporomandibular disorder pain.
Since the 2000s, Emshoff and his team have been working on a concept for integrating internal derangements and osteoarthrosis in the diagnostic approach to patients with temporomandibular joint pain. In 2003, Emshoff and colleagues were the first to demonstrate that concomitant morphological abnormalities of disc displacement and osteoarthrosis are not important factors in the pathogenesis of temporomandibular joint pain and dysfunction. This saves the patient from undergoing invasive arthroplastic procedures.
In 2008, Emshoff and coworkers conducted the first human clinical trial of a red low-level laser therapy for temporomandibular joint pain, a rehabilitation method which is currently being used worldwide.
Further, in 2011, he developed a conceptual model for the identification of clinically relevant effects in the field of chronic temporomandibular pain. In the following years, this model has been widely accepted to be used in randomised clinical trials designed to show improved efficacy in chronic pain patients.
Selected publications.
His most cited peer-reviewed journal articles are:
Memberships in scientific organisations.
He is a member of various professional organizations, including:
Journal editorial positions.
He has been a member of the editorial board of the journal "Case Reports in Medicine", since 2008, "Pain and Therapy", since 2018, and Diagnostics, since 2021.
References.
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