What is an oral and maxillofacial surgeon?
The oral and maxillofacial surgeon is a dentist having made an additional five to seven-year specialization in the medical and surgical domain. This training takes place exclusively in a hospital environment where he does internships in many departments, such as in general surgery, in orthopedics, in neurosurgery, in plastic surgery as well as in general anesthesia. Once his specialization is completed, he shall pass the examination of the Royal College of Dentists of Canada (RCDC) a national body which governs the specialities of the dental medicine and aims to maintain the high standards of specialization of the profession.
The oral and maxillofacial surgeon possesses the expertise required to undertake all surgical operations related to the mouth (oral), jaws (maxillo) and the bones of the face (facial). He performs interventions requiring only a local anesthetic, with or without sedation (such as dental implant installations and extraction of wisdom teeth) in his office and major surgeries under general anesthesia (such as the orthognathic surgery, the traumatological surgery and certain pathologies) in a hospital environment.
The oral and maxillofacial surgeon collaborates with dentists, general practitioners and medical specialists so that their expertise is pooling to offer complete and optimal services.