[2] In Poland, Maxillofacial Surgery has always been dominated by dentists and still the majority of current OMFS trainees are dental graduates.
[3] In Asia, oral and maxillofacial surgery is also recognized as a dental specialty and requires a degree in dentistry prior to surgical residency training.
In Pakistan, OMFS is recognized as specialty of dentistry which requires FCPS from CPSP after 4 years BDS degree and a one-year housejob.
The scope of practice is broad and there is the ability to undertake subspecialty fellowships in areas such as head and neck surgery and microvascular reconstruction.
Following residency training, oral and maxillofacial surgeons, whether single or dual degree, have the option of undergoing 1-2 year surgical sub-specialty fellowship for further training in head and neck cancer, microvascular reconstruction, cosmetic facial surgery, craniofacial surgery and cranio-maxillofacial trauma.
[8] Oral and maxillofacial surgery is among the fourteen surgical specialties recognized by the American College of Surgeons.
[12] Unique among surgical specialists in the U.S.,[13] oral and maxillofacial surgeons are trained to administer general anesthesia and deep sedation, and they are licensed to do so in both hospital and office settings.
In 1844, at Harvard Medical School's Massachusetts General Hospital, dentist, Dr. Horace Wells was the first to use anesthesia, but with limited success.
On 16 October 1846, Boston oral surgeon, Dr. William Thomas Green Morton gave a successful demonstration using diethyl ether to Harvard medical students at the same venue.
In one of the most important and well documented events in American medical history, Morton was invited to Massachusetts General Hospital to demonstrate his technique for painless surgery.
Immediately following the demonstration, in a congratulatory letter to Dr. William Thomas Green Morton, polymath and later Harvard Medical School Dean, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., father of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. of the Supreme Court of the United States, proposed naming the state produced "anesthesia", and the procedure an "anesthetic.
"[16] Dr. Ferdinand Hasbrouck, a New York oral surgeon and an 1870 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine was among the first practitioners to succeed in the regular and commercial use of anesthesia in private surgical practice.
As Cleveland recovered from nitrous oxide, Dr. Hasbrouck began the administration of ether for the remainder of the procedure as he and the team performed the tumor surgery.
His technique, administering pentobarbital, meperidine and scopolamine intravenously, was widely accepted and first taught at Loma Linda University School of Medicine, beginning in 1945.
In the United States, a close educational and professional relationship between oral and maxillofacial surgery and anesthesiology persists to the present day.
Dr. Kazanjian joined the First Harvard Unit, serving with the British Forces in WWI, establishing the first dental and maxillofacial clinic in France, handling more than 3,000 cases of severe wounds to the face and jaws.
In 1919, New York City oral and maxillofacial surgeon, Dr. Armin Wald, an 1896 graduate of New York University College of Dentistry, was among the first in the United States[27] to successfully demonstrate and publish a procedure for alveolectomy and alveoloplasty, the surgical resection and smoothing of the ridge of the mandible and maxilla for cosmetic and prosthetic purposes.
[38] Arthur Wald made further advances in grafting in oral, plastic and reconstructive surgery[39] with the early use of fibrin foam and thrombin in the resection of large and rare mandibular tumors.
[40] He served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II and owned a cosmetic practice in midtown Manhattan.
Oral and maxillofacial surgery[45] is assigned Health Care Provider Taxonomy Code: 204E00000X [46] In the United States and globally, treatments may be performed on the craniomaxillofacial complex: mouth, jaws, face, neck, and skull, and include: Oral and maxillofacial surgery is intellectually and physically demanding and is among the most highly compensated surgical specialties in the United States[47] with a 2008 average annual income of $568,968.
[48] The popularity of oral and maxillofacial surgery as a career for persons whose first degree was medicine, not dentistry, seems to be increasing.
At least one program (University of Alabama at Birmingham) exists that allows highly qualified candidates whose first degree is in medicine, to earn the required dental degree, so as to qualify for entrance into oral and maxillofacial residency training programs and ultimately achieve board eligibility and certification in the surgical specialty.
[49] In the UK, Oral and maxillofacial surgery is one of the ten medical specialties, requiring MRCS and FRCS examinations.
Oral and maxillofacial surgery requires four to six years of further formal university training after dental school (i.e., DDS, BDent, DMD or BDS).
In the United States, four-year residency programs grant a certificate of specialty training in oral and maxillofacial surgery.
AboutFace, created by Paul Stanley, of the rock band KISS, who was born with a facial deformity, focuses on craniofacial disfiguration.