subject: What Is An Oral Surgeon? [print this page] There may be specific situations where your Palatine dentist may need to refer you to a specialist. In the United States, there are nine dental specialties, any of which you may be referred to by your dentist depending on your particular dental issues. An oral surgeon is one of the specialties which may be called upon most commonly, as they will be the ones who perform the majority of surgery on dental patients, which may include procedures required to treat an extremely wide range of issues.
Oral surgeons are involved in a great deal of procedures, treatments, and diagnoses, and are not limited in the scope of their practice to just conditions which we would traditionally associate with the dental system. Although the teeth and mouth are certainly looked after by dental surgeons, they also look after other conditions which might affect the head, mouth, neck, jaw, and gums. They practice and work on conditions which affect the functional elements of those parts of the body, but also do many procedures which are designed to correct aesthetic problems in those areas as well.
Probably the most common dental procedure an oral surgeon would perform is the removal of wisdom teeth. This is a procedure that many people need done at some point during their life. They also perform other dental procedures such as putting in or repairing a variety of dental implants.
Oral surgeons also work a great deal on the jaw. This can include corrective jaw surgery which may be performed to improve upon defects which have been present since birth. It also encompasses other procedures such as reconstructive jaw surgery which may or may not include bone grafts to repair damage that may be caused after trauma to the area.
The types of oral surgeons in the United States and in the rest of the world are defined somewhat differently. In the United States, an Oral Surgeon is a more encompassing specialty than it may be in other parts of the world. In parts of Europe for example, there is a distinction which is made between an Oral Surgeon and an Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon. The Oral surgery specialty is one which is in dentistry, while an Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon would require both a medial and a dental specialty. The American Oral Surgeons might be more properly described as an Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon, as they have a more comprehensive scope of practice.
