What Name Best Represents Our Specialty? Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon versus Oral and Facial Surgeon

Purpose: In 1975 the specialty of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMS) officially changed its name from “American Society of Oral Surgeons” to the “American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.” This change was intended to increase awareness of the specialty’s expanding surgical scope. However, in 2013 dental students and undergraduate health students are still not fully aware of OMS’s scope of practice. Recently there have been suggestions to change the specialty’s name from “Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery” to “Oral and Facial Surgery”. This study was undertaken to determine if changing the specialty’s name from “Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon” to “Oral and Facial Surgeon” would improve perception of OMS’ scope. 

Material and Methods: This cross sectional study surveyed undergraduate and dental students’ choice of specialist to treat a list of 21 different conditions. The independent variable is the specialty name (“Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon” or “Oral and Facial Surgeon”). The dependent variables are the specialists chosen for the procedure (Ear nose and throat surgeon, plastic surgeon, oral and maxillofacial surgeon/oral surgeon, periodontist, other). The test of proportions (z-test) with Yate’s Correction was performed for data analysis.

Results:

Of the 526 senior dental students that were surveyed, 484 surveys were included in the study. We found that dental students’ perception of OMS’ surgical scope remained the same whether “Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon” or “Oral and Facial Surgeon”. Of the 1641 undergraduate upper division science students that were surveyed, 1611 surveys were included in the study.  We found that undergraduate upper division science students’ perception of OMS’ surgical scope is significantly increased from 28% to 33% when “Oral and Facial Surgeon” is used as an option instead of “Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon”.

Conclusion: The use of the name “Oral and Facial Surgeon” increases undergraduate students’ perception of OMS’s surgical scope. While this increase is significant, it does not make undergraduate students or dental students completely appreciate OMS’ scope. This study suggests that changing the specialty name from “Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon” to “Oral and Facial Surgeon” may be beneficial for the specialty. However, such a drastic change is premature and further studies are needed. In the meantime, OMS need to aggressively educate our colleagues about their surgical scope.  

1. Deranian, HM: The Transformation of the American Association of Oral Surgeons into the American Association of Oral and Plastic Surgeons. Journal of the History of Dentistry 56:79, 2008
2. Hupp, J: Oral Facial Jaw Mouth Cosmetic Implant Surgeons – What’s in a Name? Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod 107:1, 2009.