Oral and maxillofacial surgery is the specialty of dentistry that includes the diagnosis and surgical and related treatment of diseases, injuries, and defects involving both the functional and esthetic aspects of the hard and soft tissues of the head, mouth, teeth, gums, jaws and neck. Oral and maxillofacial surgeons are dental specialists who treat conditions, defects, injuries, and esthetic aspects of the mouth, teeth, jaws, and face. The training of our surgical residents includes a four-year graduate degree in dentistry and the completion of a five-year hospital surgical residency program, which includes attending medical school to obtain a medical degree and a year of general surgery training.
Oral and maxillofacial surgeons care for adults and children who experience such conditions as problematic wisdom teeth, facial pain, and misaligned jaws. They treat accident victims suffering facial injuries and fractures, offer reconstructive and dental implant surgery, and care for patients with benign and malignant tumors and cysts of the jaws and functional and esthetic conditions of the maxillofacial areas. With our advanced training in pain control and anesthesia, we are able to provide our services with maximum patient comfort and safety. Our mission is to provide world class surgical services to our patients, while educating and training future surgeons to become highly competent and caring clinicians, and future leaders of our profession. We embrace discovery and scholarship as critical elements in the training of our residents.
MetroHealth Affiliation Brings Trauma Training
The department has completed its affiliation process with Cleveland’s MetroHealth Medical Center’s Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, making CWRU the only five-year integrated OMS program in the United States that will have residents rotating to University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Cleveland Clinic, and the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, as well as Metro. Based on this expanded capacity, the ADA Commission on Dental Accreditation granted its approval for increasing the number of residents to four.
The recent appointment of associate clinical professor Michael R. Zetz, D.D.S., to Division Director at Metro is also a significant turning point. Under his direction,
the expanded affiliation with Metro will not only maximize its well known trauma expertise to impart an unparalleled breadth of surgery experience, it will allow Dr. Zetz to include residents in building his vision for Metro to strengthen its expertise in TMJ, orthodontic, and implant surgeries.
Welcome, New Oral Surgery Residents
Our new residents include Mohammad Shiraz Haider, BS, MS, DDS from Orange, California, Sarah Naghibi, BA, DMD from Albany, New York, Yirae Ort, BS, DDS, from Ashtabula, by way of Korea, and Francis Scott Sicard, BS, DDS, from Saint Francisville, Louisiana. We also welcome Intern Diana J. Lyu, BA, DDS, from Great Falls Virginia.
