Ian Boggero: 2026-27 University Research Professor Q&A

Ian A. Boggero, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Division of Orofacial Pain in the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry, has been honored as a 2026-27 University Research Professor.

The University Research Professorships were established by the UK Board of Trustees in 1976 to recognize outstanding research achievements by members of its faculty. The program recognizes excellence across the full spectrum of research within each college, helping to foster a culture of innovation and research success.

The 2026-27 awards honor 17 faculty members who have demonstrated excellence in research that addresses scientific, social, cultural and economic challenges in Kentucky and around the world. Each University Research Professor receives a one-year award of $10,000.

Boggero is a leading voice on the psychological aspects of temporomandibular and orofacial pain. He serves as the director of psychological services and director of research at the UK Orofacial Pain Clinic, where he oversees both clinical care and the research mission.

A clinician-scientist, Boggero focuses his research on developing and improving psychological interventions for patients with chronic orofacial pain. He takes a multidisciplinary approach to his work, often collaborating with orofacial pain specialists, neuroscientists, clinical psychologists and epidemiologists. His research record includes more than 50 publications and 100 national and international presentations, with his work cited more than 2,400 times.

Boggero’s work is currently supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and previously by the American Psychological Association and American Academy of Orofacial Pain. His accolades include being named a DREAM scholar at UK, fellow in the inaugural class of the NIH’s ORBIT Institute and honorary member of the Omicron Kappa Upsilon Dental Honor Society. A UK graduate, Boggero received the UK Psychology Recent Alumni Achievement award.

Boggero spoke with UKNow about his latest honor as a University Research Professor in this Q&A.

UKNow: What does it mean to you to be recognized as a University Research Professor?

Boggero: Getting this recognition is such a huge honor. What makes it even more special is knowing the quality of researchers in the UK College of Dentistry; to have that peer-recognition from eminent leaders in their field is certainly humbling. When I see my fellow cohort from all the other colleges and learn about the work they’ve done and continue to do, and when I look back to all the people who have obtained this distinction in the past, it is an exceptionally distinguished crowd. So this distinction, to me, is validation of all the hard work that my collaborators and I have accomplished over the last several years, and it will motivate me to continue to work harder in my research for the coming years. 

UKNow: How will the professorships program advance your research?

Boggero: My research is on developing and refining psychological interventions for managing chronic orofacial pain conditions. I currently have an NIH-funded grant where we are assigning patients with chronic orofacial pain to receive one of two brief psychological telehealth interventions for pain, and the preliminary results of the grant are looking very promising. While this is very encouraging, and I think such interventions can help a lot of people, I am increasingly becoming interested in even briefer interventions that could be used for all patients with chronic orofacial pain. To that end, I will use the funds from the award to obtain pilot data for a single, two-hour pain course which we hope to be able to offer to all interested patients in the orofacial pain clinic. I have an extremely talented Ph.D. student in clinical psychology (Katie Wakeman) who will be helping me with the project, and we are optimistic that this pilot data could support larger grants in the future. 

UKNow: What inspired your focus on this area of research?

Boggero: My patients are always the inspiration for my research. I have been working with chronic pain patients since 2012, and when I became the director of psychological services at the UK Orofacial Pain Clinic in 2020, I started realizing that many of the psychological interventions for chronic pain had not been validated in populations of patients with chronic orofacial pain. This particular population is different than others with chronic pain, because often times, orofacial pain is aggravated by fundamentally social activities like speaking, expressing emotions and eating. So, psychologically, the needs of patients with chronic orofacial pain may be different than those of patients with other pain conditions. And, without strong evidence, we do not know the best psychological strategies for managing this pain. My research aims to fill this gap by developing and refining psychological interventions specifically for patients with chronic orofacial pain conditions. 

UKNow: What continues to motivate your work?

Boggero: I get motivated when I see people get better. When we have a patient who starts off with a pain intensity of 7 out of 10, and then after two sessions of our psychological intervention they are at a 2, those are the kinds of successes that drive me and inspire me to keep going down this line of work. Also, I am greatly inspired by the people around me. All the faculty and residents at the Orofacial Pain Clinic at UK are leaders or future leaders of the field, starting with the founder of the clinic, Jeff Okeson, D.M.D., who is a founding father of the field of orofacial pain (and current dean of the College of Dentistry), and the current clinic director, Isabel Moreno-Hay, D.D.S., Ph.D., who is currently the president of the American Academy of Orofacial Pain. There is something about being surrounded by great people that really drives me to be better every single day, and everyone on the team is a huge inspiration to me. 

UKNow: How does your research impact Kentucky?

Boggero: Many people in Kentucky have chronic orofacial pain, and the pain clinic at UK is the largest multidisciplinary orofacial pain clinic in the state (and one of the largest in the country). We regularly see patients from all over Kentucky and neighboring states in the clinic, and I firmly believe that the work we are doing is making a big impact in the state with regards to helping people with pain. On the psychology team, we now offer most of our services via telehealth, and I am able to offer sessions in Spanish, which is helping us deliver multidisciplinary orofacial pain care to rural parts of the state where such care would have otherwise been unavailable or excessively burdensome to access. We are always looking for ways to improve our access to care so that we can continue making an impact to all Kentuckians.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number K23DE031807. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.