Dr. Epstein is a graduate of the College of Dentistry, University of Saskatchewan and received a certificate in Oral Medicine and Master of Science Degree in Dentistry from the University of Washington in Seattle. 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 Diplomat of the American Board of Oral Medicine and was 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. 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.

He was on the medical/dental staff of the British Columbia Cancer Agency for 20 years; 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, and a Clinical Professor in the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of British Columbia. He is now Director of Oral Medicine, Division of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery City of Hope, Duarte, CA and medical-dental staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA. He conducts a private referral practice in Oral Medicine and consultation practice in Vancouver BC. Dr. Epstein has published in oncology, facial pain and general areas of Oral Medicine, with more than six hundred contributions to the literature.