OMFS Plastics Residency

[checkamundo]

What's exactly involved in a Plastics Residency after finishing an OMFS residency? Can you only do a Plastics Residency if you get an MD as well as the DDS? How many years do you have to complete for a Plastics Residency? What types of procedures do oral surgeons perform after completing a Plastics Residency?

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[MU-UMKC DENT]

First off, you do need an M.D. to get accepted into a plastics fellowship following an OMF residency. Most plastics fellowships are about 2 years. OMF surgeons generally don't apply for plastics fellowships, and they can be somewhat more difficult for OMF surgeons to get into. Following the fellowship, you are eligible to be board certified as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon. At this point, the fact that you have a D.D.S. is almost irrelevent as it would be far more lucrative, generally speaking, doing everyday plastics procedures including breast augmentation, face lifts, etc. This is the option of during a 1 year cosmetic fellowship following OMF residency (in combined MD programs) that offer training in a variety of plastics procedures. These programs, however, are generally looked down upon by the plastic surgery community as those who complete such programs are not eligible for board certification (though are still technically allowed to do virtually any plastics procedure).

 

[checkamundo]

So to do a cosmetic fellowship, you still need a MD

 

[esclavo]

First off, you do need an M.D. to get accepted into a plastics fellowship following an OMF residency. Most plastics fellowships are about 2 years. OMF surgeons generally don't apply for plastics fellowships, and they can be somewhat more difficult for OMF surgeons to get into. Following the fellowship, you are eligible to be board certified as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon. At this point, the fact that you have a D.D.S. is almost irrelevent as it would be far more lucrative, generally speaking, doing everyday plastics procedures including breast augmentation, face lifts, etc. This is the option of during a 1 year cosmetic fellowship following OMF residency (in combined MD programs) that offer training in a variety of plastics procedures. These programs, however, are generally looked down upon by the plastic surgery community as those who complete such programs are not eligible for board certification (though are still technically allowed to do virtually any plastics procedure).

I know of two people with DDS only who completed the UMKC facial cosmetics fellowship. Most fellowships prefer the MD though of all the OMFS fellowships, I think cosmetics has the weakest case for requiring one since most facial cosmetic procedures are outpatient-done in a surgery center or clinic. When one completes a cosmetics fellowship, I am not convinced that they can do ANY plastics procedure as you stated. I have never heard of an OMFS cosmetic fellow being able to do total body lifts or free flaps.....There is a large difference between a plastic surgery fellowship (mostly offered to general surgeons and ENT surgeons) and an OMFS facial cosmetics fellowship. I personally think a facial cosmetic trained OMFs is better at elective cosmetic facial surgery than a fully trained plastic surgeon because they do more facial procedures in 1 year than a plastic surgeon does in his 5 year residency....

 

[Jediwendell]

A main reason that they are difficult to get into is that they generally require three full years of general surgery before you can apply, and many want a fully completed general surgery residency. The trick is to get the plastics fellowship to accept that your OMS training is equivalent to three years of general surgery, which is difficult to do.

There are a couple of guys that are in the San Antonio plastics fellowship that had OMS training, and it really isn't a very good fellowship from what I understand (may be wrong, so don't jump on me if you are a plastics guy ). The training that they get might not be worth the extra three years, particularly if you are just doing it to be able to do more facial cosmetics. You will get training to do breasts, free flaps, etc., but you would want to be sure that you really want to do those things in your practice before committing to three years plus.

If you get into a good facial cosmetic OMS fellowship, my feeling is that you will get really good training for what you want to do, but be careful. There are some bad ones out there.

 

[MAXFAC]

1. Plastic and Reconstructive surgery
According to ABPS, a board certified or board eligible DDS or DMD/MD OMFS can be PRS board eligible, if He/She completed two years of accredited residency/fellowship in plastics after a minimum of 24 months ,after graduation from medical school, in the following areas of General Surgery, Alimentary Tract Surgery Abdominal Surgery, Breast Surgery , Head and Neck Surgery ,Vascular Surgery ,Endocrine Surgery ,Surgical Oncology ,Trauma ,Critical Care , Pediatric Surgery ,Transplant. They will not count the time spent in OMFS as part of your 24 months prerequisite.
ABPS is accredited by American board of medical specialties.
Your training is in general plastics including but not limited to cosmetics, flaps , reconstructive surgery and others.
http://www.abplsurg.org/training_requirements.html

2.Cosmetic surgery
If you mean cosmetics fellowship thats a different story, there is a board called American board of cosmetic surgery that certify cosmetic surgery fellowships which range from 1-2 years depending on what type of training. One year for facial cosmetics and two years for general cosmetics. This board is not accredited by American board of medical specialties and your training is limited to cosmetic procedures, some of these programs are very good and you can do as many as 700-1000 cosmetic surgery procedures a year. My program director did one of these fellowships in UTAH and he is the one who introduced cosmetics in my OMFS program.
All of these fellowships require MD to be accepted.
http://www.cosmeticsurgery.org/Surgeons/education.asp