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

To determine whether changing "oral and maxillofacial surgeon" (OMS) to "oral and facial surgeon" improves the perception and awareness of the OMS's role and surgical scope of practice in undergraduate biomedical and dental students.

This cross-sectional study requested undergraduate and dental students to select 1 of 5 specialists to treat 21 conditions. Two different surveys were presented: 1 designating specialists as "oral and maxillofacial surgeons" and 1 designating specialists as "oral and facial surgeons." The independent variable was the specialist "oral and maxillofacial surgeon" or "oral and facial surgeon." The dependent variables included specialists chosen for the procedure (ear, nose, and throat surgeon; OMS vs oral and facial surgeon; plastic surgeon; periodontist; and "other"). The test of proportions (z test) with the Yates correction was performed.

The sample was composed of 1,671 undergraduate upper division science students and 568 senior dental students. Results showed that undergraduate students' perception of an OMS's surgical scope increased significantly from 28 to 33% when "oral and facial surgeon" was used instead of "oral and maxillofacial surgeon." Dental students' perception of an OMS's surgical scope remained the same whether "oral and maxillofacial surgeon" or "oral and facial surgeon" was used.

The results of this study suggest that using "oral and facial surgeon" instead of "oral and maxillofacial surgeon" increases awareness of an OMS's surgical scope of practice in undergraduate upper division science students, which could be an important step toward increasing the recognition of the profession by the general public and other non-dental medical colleagues.