diff --git a/wire/core/PageFinder.php b/wire/core/PageFinder.php
index 3b73c257..fd35d6c1 100644
--- a/wire/core/PageFinder.php
+++ b/wire/core/PageFinder.php
@@ -164,7 +164,13 @@ class PageFinder extends Wire {
 		 * using it. Kept for further experimenting. 
 		 * 
 		 */
-		'useSortsAfter' => false, 
+		'useSortsAfter' => false,
+
+		/**
+		 * Options passed to DatabaseQuery::bindOptions() for primary query generated by this PageFinder
+		 * 
+		 */
+		'bindOptions' => array(),
 	);
 
 	/**
@@ -1386,6 +1392,9 @@ class PageFinder extends Wire {
 
 		/** @var DatabaseQuerySelect $query */
 		$query = $this->wire(new DatabaseQuerySelect());
+		if(!empty($options['bindOptions'])) {
+			foreach($options['bindOptions'] as $k => $v) $query->bindOption($k, $v);
+		}
 		$query->select($columns);
 		$query->from("pages"); 
 		$query->groupby($options['returnParentIDs'] ? 'pages.parent_id' : 'pages.id');
@@ -1665,7 +1674,11 @@ class PageFinder extends Wire {
 					$query = $pageFinder->find($selectors, array(
 						'returnQuery' => true, 
 						'returnVerbose' => false,
-						'findAll' => true
+						'findAll' => true,
+						'bindOptions' => array(
+							'prefix' => 'pfor', 
+							'global' => true, 
+						)
 					));
 					if($n > 0) $sql .= " \n\tOR pages.id IN (\n";
 					$query->set('groupby', array());
@@ -2415,8 +2428,15 @@ class PageFinder extends Wire {
 					// handle one or more space-separated full words match to 'name' field in any order
 					$s = '';
 					foreach(explode(' ', $value) as $n => $word) {
-						$word = $sanitizer->pageName($word, Sanitizer::toAscii); 
-						$bindKey = $query->bindValueGetKey('[[:<:]]' . $word . '[[:>:]]');
+						$word = $sanitizer->pageName($word, Sanitizer::toAscii);
+						$mySQL8 = false; // @todo add version check
+						if($mySQL8) {
+							// confirm the statement below works in MySQL 8.x because "\\b" has
+							// very different regex meaning between 8.x and versions prior to it 
+							$bindKey = $query->bindValueGetKey("\\b$word\\b");
+						} else {
+							$bindKey = $query->bindValueGetKey('[[:<:]]' . $word . '[[:>:]]');
+						}
 						$s .= ($s ? ' AND ' : '') . "$table.$field RLIKE $bindKey";
 					}