Oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS)

Oral and maxillofacial surgery is a medical specialty that includes diagnostics, prevention. This includes both functional and aesthetic regeneration of diseases, injuries, deformities and changes in shape.

What is Cranio-maxillofacial surgery?

Cranio-maxillofacial surgery ( oral and maxillofacial surgery, or maxillofacial surgery for short) is a medical and surgical specialty whose object is the diagnosis and surgical or therapeutic treatment of diseases, injuries and anomalies concerning the functional and aesthetic aspects of the hard and soft tissues of the cranio-maxillofacial complex, consisting of the skull, face, mouth, upper and lower jaw and neck.

Treatment at Swiss Medical

The care of the patient includes all clinical phases, from the diagnosis to the choice of the most appropriate surgical treatment and the follow-up examinations.

The maxillofacial surgeon thus treats patients with conditions such as facial pain or malocclusion, or patients who have suffered a facial injury, for example, or who have a tumor or cysts of the jawbone, as well as functional or aesthetic impairments as a result of a disease in the maxillofacial region. This specialized discipline is wide-ranging.

The spectrum of surgical procedures ranges from invasive, very complicated operations (for example, facial and maxillary reconstructions that also involve very important nerves) to minimally invasive and rather uncomplicated operations.

Our spectrum

Here are some examples of the fields of activity of a surgeon specializing in the maxillofacial area:

  • Dentoalveolar surgical procedures to correct problems and damage to the teeth, such as the extraction of decayed teeth that cannot be treated, the extraction of dead teeth, the placement of dentures and implants, or the treatment of granulomas and abscesses in the dental area
  • the treatment of fractures of the upper or lower jaw
  • removal of cysts or tumors from a part of the face, mouth, upper or lower jaw
  • surgical interventions related to the temporomandibular joint
  • surgical correction of congenital defects of the cranial vault
  • surgical correction of congenital malformations of the mouth, such as cleft lip and palate (or "harelip")
  • orthognathic surgical operations, a branch of medicine dealing in particular with anomalies and dysfunctions of the mandible
  • Cosmetic surgery on certain parts of the face

The most common procedures performed by a maxillofacial surgeon include otoplasty (correction of so-called "protruding ears" or other aesthetic defects of the ears), blepharoplasty (reconstruction or correction of the eyelids), rhinoplasty (correction of the aesthetic and/or functional shape of the nose), and genioplasty (cosmetic surgery of the chin)

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