Modern surgery has developed to such an extent that the body of knowledge and technical skills required have led to surgeons specialising in particular areas, usually an anatomical area of the body or occasionally in a particular technique or type of patient.

There are nine surgical specialties and this briefing covers Oral & Maxillofacial surgery

What do Oral and Maxillofacial surgeons do?

Often seen as the bridge between medicine and dentistry, oral and maxillofacial surgery is the surgical specialty concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of diseases affecting the mouth, jaws, face and neck

The scope of the specialty is extensive and includes the diagnosis and management of facial injuries, head and neck cancers, salivary gland diseases, facial disproportion, facial pain, impacted teeth, cysts and tumours of the jaws as well as numerous problems affecting the oral mucosa such as mouth ulcers and infections

Main operations

A range of oral and maxillofacial surgical operations are carried out on an outpatient basis under local anaesthesia or conscious sedation.

These include: pre-implant surgery placement of dental/facial implants, removal of impacted teeth, intra-oral and facial soft tissue procedures. More major operations, for example those for salivary gland disease, trauma, facial deformity or cancer, are carried out on an inpatient basis under general anaesthetic.

• Facial injuries, management of complex craniofacial fractures and soft tissue injuries of the mouth, face, and neck.
• Head and neck cancer, access to tumours within the depths of the complex craniofacial anatomy, and ablation of tumours, including neck dissections.
• Reconstructive surgery, including microvascular free tissue transfer.
• Orthognathic surgery for the correction of facial disproportion
• Pre-implant surgery, including the use of implants to retain facial or dental prostheses and associated bone grafting techniques as part of oro-facial reconstruction.
• Removal of impacted teeth and complex buried dental roots.
• Removal of cysts and tumours of the jaws
• Primary and secondary surgery for cleft lip and palate, and other congenital facial deformities.
• Removal of complex facial skin tumours and reconstruction
• Cosmetic surgery including face lifts, eyelid and brow surgery and rhinoplasties.