Why would you see a maxillofacial surgeon?

Many types of injuries and conditions are treated within the oral and maxillofacial specialty. You may require oral or maxillofacial surgery if you experience:

• Facial trauma
• Head or neck cancer
• Salivary gland disorders
• Facial disproportion or deformity
• Facial pain
• Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders
• Impacted teeth
• Oral cysts and tumours
• Oral mucosa conditions, such as mouth ulcers and infections

Operations performed by an oral and maxillofacial surgeoin

At OneWelbeck, a range of oral and maxillofacial surgeries are carried out in an outpatient setting. These are procedures that require a local anaesthetic or light sedation, such as:

• Placement of dental or facial implants pre-implant surgery
• Removal of impacted teeth
• Intra-oral and facial soft tissue procedures

If you need to have a more complex procedure that requires a general anaesthetic, you’ll be cared for as an inpatient, which means you’ll stay in hospital for at least one night. These procedures include:

• Facial trauma surgeries: for the management of complex craniofacial fractures and soft tissue injuries of the mouth, face and neck
• Diagnosis and treatment of head and neck cancer: surgery is done to access and ablate tumours
• Reconstructive surgery: microvascular free tissue transfer (free-flap surgery) is performed after tumour removal to reconstruct the site
• Tooth removal: the removal of impacted teeth and complex buried dental roots
• Tumour surgery: involves the surgical removal of cysts and tumours of the jaws and removal of complex facial skin tumours and reconstruction