The medical field is rife with acronyms, so let us help take some of the guess work out of who we are as oral surgeons and what we do. OMS stands for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery – a specialized form of dentistry. Maxillofacial simply refers to the facial skeleton, including the bones of the jaw, face, cheekbone, forehead and surrounding soft tissues. An Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon is a dentist who, after completing 4 years of dental school, has received 4-6 years of additional surgical training in a hospital-based residency. The additional years of training are focused on surgical management of oral and facial trauma, pathology, misaligned jaws, wisdom teeth, implants, and anesthesia.
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons treat a wide variety of dental problems that are beyond the scope of your general dentist. Some common procedures performed by Oral Surgeons are:
- Dental Implants
- Bone Grafts
- Removal of Impacted Teeth
- Removal of Wisdom Teeth
- TMJ disorders
- Facial Surgery
For more information about OMS, please watch this short informative video:
What is an OMS? from AAOMS.org on Vimeo.