Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon Perform surgery and related procedures on the hard and soft tissues of the oral and maxillofacial regions to treat diseases, injuries, or defects. May diagnose problems of the oral and maxillofacial regions. May perform surgery to improve function or appearance.
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon is Also Know as
In different settings, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon is titled as
- Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS)
- Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon (OMS)
- Oral Surgeon
- Surgeon
Education and Training of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon is categorized in Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon
Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
Education Required for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon
Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Degrees Related to Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon
- Bachelor in Oral/Maxillofacial Surgery
- Associate Degree Courses in Oral/Maxillofacial Surgery
- Masters Degree Courses in Oral/Maxillofacial Surgery
- Bachelor in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency Program
- Associate Degree Courses in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency Program
- Masters Degree Courses in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency Program
Training Required for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon
Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon in different industries are
- Pediatric Surgeons
- Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric
- Prosthodontists
- Dentists, General
- Dermatologists
- Ophthalmologists, Except Pediatric
- Urologists
- Orthodontists
- Emergency Medicine Physicians
- Cardiologists
- General Internal Medicine Physicians
- Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians
- Podiatrists
- Dental Assistants
- Dental Hygienists
- Anesthesiologists
- Optometrists
- Obstetricians and Gynecologists
- Surgical Assistants
- Neurologists
What Do Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon do?
- Administer general and local anesthetics.
- Remove impacted, damaged, and non-restorable teeth.
- Evaluate the position of the wisdom teeth to determine whether problems exist currently or might occur in the future.
- Collaborate with other professionals, such as restorative dentists and orthodontists, to plan treatment.
- Perform surgery to prepare the mouth for dental implants and to aid in the regeneration of deficient bone and gum tissues.
- Remove tumors and other abnormal growths of the oral and facial regions, using surgical instruments.
- Treat infections of the oral cavity, salivary glands, jaws, and neck.
- Treat problems affecting the oral mucosa, such as mouth ulcers and infections.
- Provide emergency treatment of facial injuries including facial lacerations, intra-oral lacerations, and fractured facial bones.
- Perform surgery on the mouth and jaws to treat conditions such as cleft lip, cleft palate, and jaw growth problems.
- Restore form and function by moving skin, bone, nerves, and other tissues from other parts of the body to reconstruct the jaws and face.
- Treat snoring problems, using laser surgery.
- Perform minor cosmetic procedures, such as chin and cheekbone enhancements.
- Perform minor facial rejuvenation procedures, including the use of Botox and laser technology.
Qualities of Good Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
Tools Used by Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon
- Alveolar forceps
- Anesthesia machines
- Anesthetic injectors
- Angled scalpels
- Anterior periotomes
- Apexo elevators
- Apical forceps
- Articulating paper forceps
- Automated external defibrillators AED
- Bandage scissors
- Bone calipers
- Bone crushers
- Bone files
- Bone mills
- Bone packers
- Bone pluggers
- Bone tampers
- Capnograph monitors
- Cheek retractors
- Chisel scalers
- Compass microsaws
- Crown lengthening gauges
- Crown removers
- Crown spreaders
- Cryer elevators
- Curtis elevators
- Curved dental scissors
- Curved hemostats
- Curved iris scissors
- Curved osteostomes
- Dean scissors
- Dental aspiration syringes
- Dental aspirators
- Dental bone rasps
- Dental computed tomography CT scanners
- Dental cone beam computed tomography CT scanners
- Dental cryosurgery units
- Dental elevators
- Dental gauze packers
- Dental laser systems
- Dental loupes
- Dental mallets
- Dental mouth prop or bite block or gag
- Dental placement instruments
- Dental reciprocating saws
- Dental root tip picks
- Dental sagittal saws
- Dental spreading tools
- Dental suction units
- Dental surgical burs
- Dental suture needles
- Dental tissue pliers
- Desktop computers
- Digital dental x ray units
- Electrocardiography EKG monitors
- Electrosurgical units
- Electrotomes
- Endodontic excavators
- Endodontic gauges
- Endodontic pluggers
- Endondontic explorers
- File scalers
- Gingival cord packers
- Gouge elevators
- Heidbrink elevators
- High-speed dental handpieces
- Intraoral digital video cameras
- Intraoral still cameras
- Intraoral x ray equipment
- Intravenous IV equipment
- Irrigating syringes
- Lacrimal probes
- Laptop computers
- Left syndesmotomes
- Luxating elevators
- Mead forceps
- Microsurgical corn suture pliers
- Molt mouth gags
- Mouth mirrors
- Mucotomes
- Multiparameter vital sign monitors
- Needle holders
- Nitrous oxide delivery systems
- Oral airways
- Oral surgery ronguers
- Oral surgical retractors
- Oscillating microsaws
- Osseoscalpel microsaws
- Panoramic dental x ray units
- Pedodontic forceps
- Periodontal chisels
- Periodontal hoe scalers
- Periodontal knives
- Periodontal surgical curettes
- Periosteal elevators
- Peristaltic water pumps
- Piezoelectric ultrasonic generators
- Posterior periotomes
- Potts elevators
- Pressure steam autoclaves
- Pulse oximeters
- Right syndesmotomes
- Root elevators
- Root forceps
- Rubber dam clamp forceps
- Rubber dam clamps
- Rubber dam frames
- Rubber dam punches
- Safety glasses
- Safety goggles
- Seldin elevators
- Serrated elevators
- Sinus curettes
- Sinus lift instruments
- Sinus retractors
- Skin hooks
- Sphygmomanometers
- Stout elevators
- Straight dental scissors
- Straight hemostats
- Straight iris scissors
- Straight osteotomes
- Straight syndesmotomes
- Surgical gloves
- Surgical irrigation sets
- Surgical masks
- Surgical scalpels
- Suture scissors
- Tissue forceps
- Tissue nippers
- Tongue retractors
- Towel clamps
- Trephine burs
- Ultrasonic sterilization units
- V-notch retractors
- Volumetric infusion pumps
- Warwick-James elevators
- Wire cutting scissors
- Wire twisting scissors
- Woodward elevators
Technology Skills required for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon
- Ada
- Apteryx Imaging Suite
- DecisionBase TiME for OMS
- DentalEye
- Dolphin Imaging & Management Solutions Dolphin Management
- DSN Software Oral Surgery-Exec
- Gendex Dental Systems VixWin PRO
- Kodak Dental Systems Kodak Cosmetic Imaging Module
- Operating system software
- Planmeca Oy Dimaxis
- Sirona SIDEXIS XG