Professor Tara Renton BDS MDSc PhD FDSRCS FRACDS MHEA

After completing her oral and maxillofacial surgical training in Melbourne, Tara Renton undertook a PhD in trigeminal nerve injury at King's College London from 1999 to 2003. She was later appointed Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London and was awarded her chair at King's College London in 2006.
 
Over the past three years, Tara has led the teaching of Years 3, 4 and 5. She has established an academic training programme, which now has eight Oral Surgery SpRs of which three are undertaking PhDs and two are post doctoral fellows.
 
In collaboration with Institute of Psychiatry at King's and Imperial College, Tara and collaborators have established an international leading programme of trigeminal pain research.
 
Tara is the National Advisor for Oral Surgery, a council member for British Association of Oral Surgeons (BAOS), and an elected member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England Dental Faculty Committee.

• Orofacial pain, trigeminal nerve injury, oral surgery.
• Peripheral pain receptor expression in orofacial mucosa, trigeminal nerve, dental pulp.
• Central trigeminal pain pathways assessed using fMR

The major questions that we want to answer are:

• Can we establish a biomarker for pain in man (acute and chronic)? Thus providing a gold standard clinical trial model.
• What role do odontoblats have in dental pain?
• What is the genetic basis for trigeminal pain?
• What peripheral receptors and central pathways play a role in exacerbating and alleying pain?
• Can we grow autogenous nerve grafts from extracted teeth?

Collaborators:
Functional imaging and genetic studies in trigeminal pain: Professor Steven Williams, Dr Matthew Howard, Dr Kristina Krause and Dr Sam Chong.
 
Receptor studies: Keith Tan Pfizer and Professor Praveen Anand of Imperial College.
Dental pain: Dr Lucy DiSIlvio and Dr Andy Grant

Postdoctoral fellow
Zehra Yilmaz
 
Integrated Academic Trainees/ PhD students
Dr Nadine Khawaja and Dr Kiran Beneng
 
PhD Student
Obi Ebunegwe

Renton T, Yiangou Y, McGurk M, Plumpton C, Tate S, Bountra C, Anand P. Presence of VR1 and P2X3 sodium channels in tooth pulp. J Orofacial Pain 2003;17:245-250.
 
Van Wesenbeeck L, Cleiran E, Grann J, Beals RK, Benichou O, Scopelliti D, Key L, Renton T, Warman M, de Vernejoul C, Bollerslev J, van Hul W. Six novel missense mutations in the LDL receptor-related protein 5 gene in differently diagnosed sclerosing bone dysplasias. Am J Hum Genet 2003; 72:763-771.
 
McArdle L, Renton T, Distal cervical caries in the mandibular second premolar: An indication for the prophylactic removal of the third molar? Br J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2005 Jun;44:42-45
 
Renton T, Thexton A, Hankins M, Sproate C, McGurk M. A prospective randomised study assessing coronectomy versus removal in third molar surgery. BJOMS 2005;43:7-12
 
Renton T, Thexton A, Hankins M, Sproate C, McGurk M. Radiographic risk evaluation for inferior alveolar nerve injury. BJOMS 2005
 
Renton T, Thexton A, Mcgurk M. New method for the objective evaluation of injury to the lingual nerve after operation on third molars.Br J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2005 Jun;43(3):238-45.
 
Renton T, Thexton A, Mcgurk M. Objective evaluation of iatrogenic lingual nerve injuries using the jaw-opening reflex. Br J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2005 Jun;43(3):232-7.
 
Renton T, Yiangou Y, Plumpton C, Tate S, Bountra C, Anand P. Sodium channel Nav1.8 immunoreactivity in painful human dental pulp. BMC Oral Health. 2005 Jul 7;5(1):5.
 
Renton T, Thexton A, SJ Crean, Hankins M,. Simplifying assessment of recovery of the lingual nerve from injury. BDJ 200;10:569-573
 
Yilmaz Z, Renton T, Yiangou Y, Zakrzewska J, Chessell IP, Bountra C, Anand P. Burning mouth syndrome as a trigeminal small fibre neuropathy: Increased heat and capsaicin receptor TRPV1 in nerve fibres correlates with pain score. J Clin Neurosci. 2007 Sep;14(9):864-71. Epub 2007 Jun 19.
 
Renton T. An update on pain. Br Dent J. 2008 Mar 22;204(6):335-8.
 
Khawaja N, Renton T. Case studies on implant removal influencing the resolution of inferior alveolar nerve injury. Br Dent J. 2009 Apr 11;206(7):365-70
 
Renton T. Minimising implant related nerve injuries. Dental Update Accepted 2008 in press
 
Xiang Li1, Garrit Koller2, 3, Lucy Di Silvio2, Tara Renton3, Minoo Esat4, Jie Huang1, William Bonfield1, 5, Mohan Edirisinghe1*A Novel Jet-based nHA Patterning Technique for Human Osteoblast Cell Guiding. Accepted Journal of the Royal Society : 2009
 
Beneng K, Yiangou Y, Anand P, Renton T. P2X3 and GDNF expression in Burning mouth syndrome. accepted BMC Neuroscience 2009
 
Renton T, Beneng K, Yiangou Y, Anand P. Nav1.7 expression in health and acute or chronic orofacal pain. accepted BMC Neuroscience acepted July 2009
 
Beneng K, Renton T, Yiangou Y, Anand P. Cannabinoid receptor expression in trigeminal pain states. Accepted J Oral Surgery.
18. Renton T, N Khawajar, K Beneng, Z Y1lmaz Post-surgical neuropathy of the trigeminal nerve? Accepted J Orofacial pain
 
N Khawajar, Renton T. Case Studies illustrating the management of trigeminal neuropathic pain using topical 5% Lidocaine patches. Accepted J Oral Surgery