Oral and Maxillofacial surgery?

[Healthinfo104]

Hello, I have a question regarding oral and maxillofacial surgeons (I have to get wisdom teeth out and noticed the practitioners had various credentials).

So I saw that to be an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, one has to finish dental school obviously, they can either go for a 4 year residency and get a certification in OMFS or they can go for 6 years and get an additional Medical degree.

So it got me interested and I had some questions about this:

1) What would the point or advantage be of going an extra 2 years to get the additional MD degree over just the 4 year certification? Doesn't a dental degree already overlap largely with an MD degree as it is?

2) Since these practitioners *possibly* can have dual degrees in medicine and dentisty, is the specialty of OMFS considered a field of medicine or dentistry?

3) Also, since there's the possibility of dual degrees, do these surgeons get licensed and practice as a physician, a dentist, or both?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[allantois]

OMFS is a dental specialty. I believe you can get a medical license if you get the MD degree which may help with hospital privileges. Most OMFS probably aren’t too interested in hospital work anyway.

 

[Roy Williams]

1. Furthering your education, academics/professor, easier to get hospital fellowship after residency
2. Dentistry
3. Both

 

[BlackThought]

Doesn't a dental degree already overlap largely with an MD degree as it is?

No. Not necessarily. It really is school dependent.

The MD track is essentially a necessity for the majority of fellowships in microvascular/onc, craniofacial, cosmetics. Some will say that having the MD also makes going into academics much smoother. That is true, but there are many 4y people that go into academics as well. The MD just tends to open some doors at times.

If private practice is your goal and you have no actual interest in a medical school education then a 4y program is your best bet and you'll get great training. But 2 years in the grand scheme of things is not that long and if you have the drive to learn + have a bit of an ego, then a 6y program will never hurt you. You'll never regret more education.