Dental Question-Oral Surgeon?

[xnfs93hy]

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Now, from what I gather, an Oral surgeon is a dentist who has gone through four years UG, four years DS, and has completed a residency. How long is this residency and is it just a residency in Oral and maxillofacial?

Is this person a dentist or an MD? I am really confused...

 

[Depakote]

Now, from what I gather, an Oral surgeon is a dentist who has gone through four years UG, four years DS, and has completed a residency. How long is this residency and is it just a residency in Oral and maxillofacial?

Is this person a dentist or an MD? I am really confused...

OMFS is a bit strange and I'm not 100% on the details.

Most oral surgeons I know hold both a DDS and a MD degree.

I believe it is generally achieved by attending a full dental school then another 2 years of MD training followed by a OMFS surgical residency.

It's a VERY long course.

 

[lhtran07]

Yes, I believe you go through 4 years of UG, 4 years of dental school, and then another 4 years of OMFS residency (or instead of the 4yr OMFS residency you can do a 6yr residency training that will lead to an MD in addition to your DDS/DMD).

It's very hard-core....you gotta love it to do it. I'd rather not be on call and have to go in for a 6hr emergency surgery in the middle of the night on somebody's face that was crushed in a car accident though. Not my cup of tea. I'll take the 4-day, 8 to 5, no-call work week please.

 

[ToldYouSo]

After you graduate from dental school, you can specialize in OMFS by doing a 4 year residency (Just like orthodontics, periodontics etc...) Some schools have a 4 year and a 6 year program. The 4 year program is the regular program where you learn to do OMFS, but the 6 year program grants you an MD degree as well. The MD specialization doesn't do much except allow you to apply for an MD residency (Surgery, Anesthesia, Radiology etc...) But that is obvisouly a very long path.

 

[Maygyver]

The dental surgeon I went to just had a dental degree, no MD. Oral Surgery is just a specialty of dentistry. Are you thinking of dentistry now? How come the change?

 

[236116]

The dental surgeon I went to just had a dental degree, no MD. Oral Surgery is just a specialty of dentistry. Are you thinking of dentistry now? How come the change?

Not strictly true, as Depakote pointed out.

OMFS surgery is usually ugrad --> dentistry school --> residency (6yr) that gets you an MD --> fellowship if you want. There's a trend to do med school first and then an integrated dentist/OMFS residency. Doing OMFS allows some more "medicine" than the just dentistry side.

 

[Maygyver]

Yeah, true. I guess it is one of those things that is sort of up to the person. I do know that Case Western offers a dual DDS/MD degree or DMD/MD. (I'm not sure which dental degree.)

Not strictly true, as Depakote pointed out.

OMFS surgery is usually ugrad --> dentistry school --> residency (6yr) that gets you an MD --> fellowship if you want. There's a trend to do med school first and then an integrated dentist/OMFS residency. Doing OMFS allows some more "medicine" than the just dentistry side.

 

[armorshell]

Yeah, true. I guess it is one of those things that is sort of up to the person. I do know that Case Western offers a dual DDS/MD degree or DMD/MD. (I'm not sure which dental degree.)

Note that it's more or less unheard of, or at least incredibly rare for someone to do one of these programs then go into OMFS, which I'd hardly call a trend.

 

[armorshell]

Not strictly true, as Depakote pointed out.

OMFS surgery is usually ugrad --> dentistry school --> residency (6yr) that gets you an MD --> fellowship if you want. There's a trend to do med school first and then an integrated dentist/OMFS residency. Doing OMFS allows some more "medicine" than the just dentistry side.

As I mentioned above, programs that allow this are few and far between, and even those that do require a 7 year commitment (3 years dental school, 4 years residency).