The Schedule Of An Oral And Maxillofacial Surgeon

An OMF surgeon will consult with their hospital patients 1-2 times a day, depending on the patient's progress after surgery, and this is done every morning before they start with any other work in their rooms. The specialist will provide post-surgical care for the patient until they are ready to be discharged.

OMF surgeons will be on call for the hospital they work at and will see emergency patients when needed. Emergency cases can include traumatic fractures of the facial and nasal bones as well as dental emergencies such as missing or cracked teeth due to trauma.  

Monday

The OMF surgeon will begin the week by perform administrative duties such as confirming meetings for the week, confirming the surgical lists for patients that have already been booked and checking on investigative results of patients.

The specialist will then consult patients for the day. If there any any aesthetic procedures to be done, then they are performed in the procedure room of the office. Any other aesthetic procedures that require general anaesthesia, and most dental procedures, will be done at a day-surgery clinic where the patient will receive a surgical date. More complex procedures, that will require a stay in hospital, will be performed at an acute hospital for which the patient will receive a surgical date for as well.

Tuesday

The OMF surgeon will be booked to perform operations on patients in the acute hospital for the whole day. Procedures that may be performed here include bone grafting in order to provide better anatomy for the placing of dental prosthetics, reconstructive jaw surgery, open surgery for internal fixation of facial and nasal fractures and any procedures on medically compromised patients that also need the care of a physician.

Wednesday 

The specialist may use a Wednesday morning to perform procedures at the day-surgery clinics. These would include cosmetic procedures such as rhinoplasty, otoplasty, face-lifts, blepharoplasty, chin and cheek augmentations, etc., as well as dental procedures such as extracting difficult or impacted teeth.

Patients are consulted further in the afternoons and managed appropriately as mentioned on a Monday.

Thursday

Thursday mornings may be spent in surgery, either at the day surgery clinic or acute hospital.

The afternoon may be spent on training post-graduate OMF candidates, research for the specialist's own further training, filling out motivation letters for medical insurance companies or giving feedback to referring healthcare professionals.

READ Dental Implants as a Solution to Missing Teeth

Friday

Friday is usually reserved for dealing with any administrative issues that haven't been resolved yet. This would include finalising the surgical list for the following week regarding patients that had been seen in the current week. 

If there are no administrative issues, then the day could also be divided between performing surgery and consulting with patients.

Once the work week in done, the OMF specialist will either have the weekend off or be on call for the hospital. In the case of the latter, the doctor will have to take care of their patients and the patients of colleagues that have discussed them with the doctor on call.