The Maxillofacial Profession

In Depth Training

Before entering higher training, the maxillofacial field requires candidates to be qualified in medicine, dentistry and core surgical skills. Expertise from each area is essential to successful care.

Ongoing training, or residency periods then take a number of years, involvement in research is not unusual and maxillofacial surgeons may choose to focus additional time on a sub speciality.

Dedicating a third of a working life to joining a profession is unusual, yet gives us individuals who are able to offer care to patients of all ages.

Treatment can encompass corrective surgery for the very young, dealing with cancers in older patients, or facial trauma at any age. The focus throughout is on restoring quality of life and supporting medical needs.

Medical Aspects

Whilst a good proportion of maxillofacial treatment involves surgery, consultants treat all conditions of the face, head and neck. Non surgical care can be a solution for infections, facial pain, or minor damage.

Diagnostic skills are equally vital. In depth understanding of craniofacial systems, or conditions which affect them, alongside the latest developments and research.

This includes familiarity with diagnostic equipment, from hand held microscopes, to CT and MRI scans. Valuable aids to help surgeons see the head, or neck in three dimensions and to accurately plan surgery.

Above all, consultants are there to care for patients and their overall medical wellbeing is paramount. Every treatment decision and action needs to consider wider effects, maxillofacial care is about health.

Dental Aspects

The nature of our bodies makes divorcing our mouth and teeth from the rest of us impractical. They are integral parts and have a broad impact, part of the reason the maxillofacial profession exists.

A further reason is an ability to contribute towards, or carry out complex dental work. This may be the removal of impacted teeth, or buried roots, or aspects of facial reconstruction.

Dental implants can be part of this, along with dental prosthetics, bone grafting, or remodelling. If a surgeon is rebuilding a damaged, or deformed jaw, the ability to restore dental function is essential.

Surgical Skills

Uncommon skills can be required, such as micro-vascular techniques to transfer tissue, or bone from another part of the body. Trauma can bring unique demands, with delicate fractures, or soft tissue damage.

There are still specific conditions maxillofacial surgeons are renowned for treating:

• Jaw disorders, correcting deformity, misalignment, or issues with the joints.
• The removal of benign, or malignant (cancerous) tumours, cysts and lesions.
• Salivary gland surgery, along with the removal of stones from related ducts.
• Correction of cleft lip and palate, or other congenital, facial deformities.
• Reconstructive surgery, following other treatment, or traumatic damage.

Every case is unique and treatment can have differing reasons. Jaw surgery may be to correct facial disproportion, or relieve facial pain, skin tumours may be cancerous, or psychologically damaging.

Whilst maxillofacial surgery is not as such a cosmetic field, preserving, or improving the way a patient looks is a vital consideration.

Ongoing Development

Continually moving medicine forward is a core aspect of a maxillofacial consultant’s life. They often act as lecturers, or mentors within the medical profession.

Skills to benefit patients are shared with less privileged countries, to develop their services, or within the UK, to meet everyday and unusual situations.

During the coronavirus epidemic, our lead consultant, as editor of the British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, worked on improvements in e-learning.

This can support treatment within the private, or public sector. We take an interest in NHS studies of maxillofacial care and offer input where we are able to.

Part of seeing developments move in a useful direction, including surgical options. Facial surgery can be brief day care under local anaesthetic, or general anaesthetic in a large operating theatre.

Managing the needs of either stems from the confidence and knowledge many years experience bring. There are no shortcuts to a maxillofacial career, because for our patients, there shouldn’t be.