When you have any common dental problems, you go to the dentist. However, sometimes these simple dental problems can get out of hand. Also, other serious dental complexities are related to more aspects than just teeth and gums. For such complexities and uncommon situations, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon is the best and most reliable option.

The oral region consists of gums, teeth, oral cavity and other such elements whereas the maxillofacial region implies connecting parts to the mouth such as the skull, neck, jaw, face and other such connecting structures. Oral and maxillofacial surgery or OMFS is a speciality of dentistry that treats aesthetic and functional aspects of the oral and maxillofacial region. OMFS includes diagnosis as well as surgical and adjunctive treatment of diseases, injuries, and defects involving both the oral region and maxillofacial region.

As an oral and maxillofacial surgeon trained in both medicine and dentistry, he can deal with an array of problems ranging from common oral problems such as dental implants, impacted teeth, and mouth ulcers to complex problems like oral cancer, facial trauma, tumours of the jaw and other such serious conditions. The scope of the speciality has also increased vastly as compared to earlier years when it was restricted to mainly dentoalveolar surgery and basic maxillofacial trauma. Currently, dentoalveolar surgery, maxillofacial trauma, pathology of the head and neck (both benign and malignant), cleft lip and palate, bone grafting, facial deformity correction, craniofacial surgery, aesthetic facial surgery, implant surgery are some of the sub-specialities being treated by maxillofacial surgeons.