Expert discipline
Oral surgery and maxillofacial surgery experts
Surgical opinion on extraction, nerve injury and facial trauma, matched to the question the claim requires the expert to answer.
Two disciplines, not one
Oral surgery and maxillofacial surgery are not the same speciality.
Dental speciality
Oral surgery
An oral surgeon is a dentist on the General Dental Council’s oral surgery specialist list. The field covers the teeth and surrounding tissues, including extractions, impacted third molars and minor oral surgery.
Common instructionDifficult extraction, retained roots or nerve injury arising from dento-alveolar surgery.
Medical speciality
Oral and maxillofacial surgery
An OMFS consultant is medically qualified, has also qualified in dentistry and holds specialist registration with the General Medical Council. The field extends across the facial skeleton, jaws, head and neck.
Common instructionMandibular fracture, complex facial trauma or treatment delivered within a maxillofacial unit.
Instruction scope
What these experts report on.
Nerve injury
Inferior alveolar and lingual nerve damage after extraction, implant placement or local anaesthesia.
Wrong-tooth extraction
How the wrong site came to be operated on and the surgical safeguards that should have applied.
Retained roots
Whether retention was a considered clinical decision or an unrecognised surgical failure.
Jaw fracture
Fracture occurring during extraction or arising from trauma, including its consequences for function and treatment.
Facial trauma
Injury to the facial skeleton and its consequences for the jaws, dentition and surrounding tissues.
Spreading dental infection
The progression of infection and the hospital or surgical management provided when escalation is in issue.
Oral cancer
Staging and surgical management where the consequences of an alleged delay are within the expert’s current field of practice.
How we match
The treating field sets the starting point.
The standard follows the field in which the treating clinician practised, not the most senior qualification available.
Some claims need evidence from both disciplines: one expert on whether surgery should have been attempted, another on the consequences. We identify that need while the instruction is being scoped.
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01
Primary care or dental setting
Oral surgeon
Often the relevant discipline where a dentist or dental specialist undertook dento-alveolar surgery.
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02
Hospital maxillofacial setting
OMFS consultant
Usually the relevant discipline where treatment involved the facial skeleton or a maxillofacial unit.
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03
Overlapping questions
More than one expert
Appropriate where breach, surgical consequences and future dental care cross disciplinary boundaries.
The report you receive
Evidence matched to the surgery and the proceedings.
The surgery performed
What was attempted, by whom and in what clinical setting.
The standard that applied
The standard of the relevant discipline at the material time.
The clinical consequences
Condition, causation, prognosis and future care where instructed.
Why solicitors instruct us
The distinction is made before the CV is sent.
The correct register
Oral surgeons are dentists on the GDC oral surgery specialist list. OMFS consultants hold GMC specialist registration and may not also be registered with the GDC. We check the status relevant to the instruction.
A relevant field of practice
If the available expertise does not match the procedure and treating field, we say so rather than offer the nearest surgical CV.
A named case manager
One point of contact coordinates the instruction, expert correspondence and delivery of the report.
Frequently asked questions
Choosing the surgical expert.
An oral surgeon is a dentist on the GDC’s oral surgery specialist list. An oral and maxillofacial surgeon has qualified in both dentistry and medicine and holds specialist registration with the GMC. The fields overlap; the training and scope do not.
Usually an oral surgeon or an OMFS consultant, depending on who performed the treatment, where it took place and the questions the report must answer.
No. Oral surgeons are registered with the GDC. Oral and maxillofacial surgeons hold GMC specialist registration and may not also be on the dental register. We verify registration with the regulator relevant to the discipline.
Some clinicians hold both registrations and have relevant current experience across the issues in dispute. Many do not. We assess the proposed expert against the individual instruction before providing the CV.
Discuss an instruction