What is Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery?

Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons care for patients with problem wisdom teeth, facial pain, and misaligned jaws. They treat accident victims suffering facial injuries, place dental implants, care for patients with oral cancer, tumors and cysts of the jaws, and perform facial cosmetic surgery.  This is an excerpt for the web page of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.


Oral and maxillofacial surgeons are the only recognized dental specialists who, after completing dental school, are surgically trained in an American Dental Association-accredited hospital-based residency program for a minimum of four years. They train alongside medical residents in internal medicine, general surgery and anesthesiology, and also spend time in otolaryngology, plastic surgery, emergency medicine and other specialty areas. Their training focuses almost exclusively on the hard (ie, bone) and soft (ie, skin, muscle) tissue of the face, mouth, and jaws. Their knowledge and surgical expertise uniquely qualify them to diagnose and treat the functional and esthetic conditions in this anatomical area. The scope of oral and maxillofacial surgery practice includes, among others:

• Outpatient Anesthesia
• Dentoalveolar Surgery to manage diseases of the teeth and their supporting soft and hard tissues
• Surgical Correction of Maxillofacial Skeletal Deformities
• Cleft and Craniofacial Surgery
• Facial Trauma Surgery
• Temporomandibular Joint Surgery
• Pathologic Conditions, such as head and neck cancer
• Facial Reconstructive Surgery
• Facial Cosmetic Surgery

Continuing in my own words, in order to become an oral & maxillofacial surgeon (OMS), one must first complete the 4-year curriculum of dental school to earn their DDS/DMD.  Upon receiving their doctorate, they can continue their post-graduation education in OMS.  The 100+ residency programs use the National Matching Services in order to maximize the applicants' chances of getting into their most desired program and help programs get the best applicant they can.  Each program offers between 1-5 spots in their program per year and will be from 4-6 years long.  Some offer a dual-degree curriculum where a resident can also earn their medical degree during their residency and all programs award the oral and maxillofacial surgery certificate.


Residency starts July 1st of every year.  I chose to do the 6-year, MD combined program and this will be the expression of joys and frustrations from the events and educational "ah-ha" moments of my residency.