Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery

[organichemistry]

I was just curious if you can go to dental or medical school to end up doing OMFS.

My impression is that you can... I know you can through dental school, and I thought it was a subspecialty after general surgery in the medical school track.

am i wrong?

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[OzDDS]

I was just curious if you can go to dental or medical school to end up doing OMFS.

My impression is that you can... I know you can through dental school, and I thought it was a subspecialty after general surgery in the medical school track.

am i wrong?

Yes and no.. Yes you can do OMFS after med school.. but you still need a dental degree to do it. OMFS is still a dental regulated surgical specialty. There are a few OMFS programs out there that will give you a (combined Dental degree and Maxillofacial surgical training) for med grads. Not sure if that route is also 6-years post MD or not.. but something to look into. good luck.

 

[toofache32]

A medical degree is optional for OMFS, but a dental degree is required. The vast majority of people do 4 years of dental school then another 4 to 6 years of OMFS residency. The 6-year programs make you do about 1.5 to 2 years of med school.

University of Louisville and Baylor (Dallas) are 2 programs that have taken MD grads and integrated the dental (instead of medical) curriculum. The downside is that you generally have to do at least 3 full years of dental school because you just can't compress it down any further. This turns a 6-year residency into 7 years.

One of the guys who did this at Louisville applied straight out of med school and didn't match. He did a year of general surgery, applied again, and matched. He had to do 3 years of dental school, but he has already done his general surgery year so it still came out to a 6 year program.

Here's a good description of a 6-year "dual-degree" residency, but they're all a little different: http://www.lsuoralsurgery.com/dept/resi/index.html

This may also help: www.aaoms.org

 

[Larsitron]

The U of Rochester has an OMFS program, but it requires a DDS before matriculation and it takes 6 years.

 

[toofache32]

Here's a list of OMFS residencies with links. Some of the links make you search around though.

http://www.aaoms.org/residencytraining.cfm

 

[ddmo]

Why would you want to do this with an MD. If you like doing that stuff go Plastics or ENT, there is so much overlap between the three you could do the same stuff.

 

[organichemistry]

Why would you want to do this with an MD. If you like doing that stuff go Plastics or ENT, there is so much overlap between the three you could do the same stuff.

oh i don't want to get an MD. i'm pre-dental, but i was just curious if OMFS specialties all came out of dental school or if some went to medical school and some went to dental school.

i wondered the same thing about optometry/opthamology, but now know their training and jobs are completely different...

 

[ddmo]

oh i don't want to get an MD. i'm pre-dental, but i was just curious if OMFS specialties all came out of dental school or if some went to medical school and some went to dental school.

i wondered the same thing about optometry/opthamology, but now know their training and jobs are completely different...

Yep, you guys have a monopoly on it. Now you just have to fight off the ENTs and PSs for case volume.

 

[toofache32]

Why would you want to do this with an MD. If you like doing that stuff go Plastics or ENT, there is so much overlap between the three you could do the same stuff.

Actually there is very little overlap in the private practice world. OMFS's do surgical extractions, implant placement, bone grafting, TMJ, and orthognathic surgery to name a few areas which are not really done by the other specialties. The trauma, pathology, cosmetics, and some craniofacial overlap.

 

[ddmo]

Actually there is very little overlap in the private practice world. OMFS's do surgical extractions, implant placement, bone grafting, TMJ, and orthognathic surgery to name a few areas which are not really done by the other specialties. The trauma, pathology, cosmetics, and some craniofacial overlap.

Sorry, I wasn't refering to the private practice stuff, but the trauma and reconstructive in an academic/tertiary care setting. Should have been more specific.