What is maxillofacial surgery? By Dr. Batllés
In Spain Maxillofacial surgery is still a largely unknown specialty to the majority of the general public; partly because there are very few specialists (around 650 in the whole of Spain) and also because it is not a specialty which is available in all public hospitals except the most important ones.
In the US, craniofacial surgery is a subspecialty of plastic surgery. In Europe this subspecialty does not exist because it is a specialty in its own right, an autonomous medical specialty: Oral y Maxillofacial surgery.
With regard to formation and specific training, Oral and Maxillofacial surgery is a medical and surgical specialty which concentrates on the prevention, study, diagnosis and treatment of illnesses of the oral cavity and the facial zone, as well as the cervical structures related directly or indirectly to them.
Working as it does with a very complex anatomical area, maxillofacial surgery covers a wide variety of procedures which are shared with la Odontology, Otorhinolaryngology (ENT), Ophthalmology, Neurosurgery, Dermatology and Plastic surgery, although it differs from these last three in that Maxillofacial surgery concentrates only on things related to one specific anatomical area (in the same way as Odontology, ENT and la Ophthalmology): the face and by extension the mouth and the neck. FACE-MOUTH-NECK
A maxillofacial surgeon treats or can treat:
- Problems of traumatology and fractures of the facial bones.
- Hare lip and cleft palate.
- Oral, craniofacial and cervical oncology.
- Reconstructive surgery.
- Facial plastic surgery.
- Pathologies of the saliva glands (tumors, stones, etc.).
- Cranial and dental- facial deformities (from minor to severe malformation syndromes).
- Infectious cervicofacial pathologies (abscesses and facial and cervical phlegmon).
- Oral and pre-prosthetic implantations, elemental and advanced (fitting and rehabilitation with dental integrated dental implants, bone implants…).
- Extra molar teeth (wisdom teeth)
- Cysts and tumors of the jaws.
- Pathologies of the oral mucous layer and of the temporomandibular joint.
As in any other medical specialty, depending on the access route, the continuous programs of specialization and retraining and the legislation in place in each country, the field of operation may be wider or narrower.
I am a specialist in Surgery Oral and Maxillofacial surgery. I am a graduate in Medicine and Odontology and have a specialist diploma in Cosmetic Medicine and Plastic surgery. I am a member of the Sociedad Española de Surgery Oral y Maxillofacial, of the Sociedad Española de Medicina y Surgery Cosmética as well as of the European Association for Cranio-Maxillo-facial Surgery and the European Academy of Facial Plastic Surgery.
I have worked in prestigious centers of craniofacial surgery, facial plastic surgery and orthognathic surgery and, without for one moment putting aside public medicine in which I learned my profession and in which I still believe, I began my journey into private medicine in 2007. I son learned that there should be professional teams offering integrated treatments in face, mouth and neck, coordinating specialties such as Orthodontics, Otorhinolaryngology, Plastic surgery, Dermatology and, of course, Maxillofacial surgery which brings them all together. This has been our endeavor since then.
Today, in Benidorm we offer a team of 14 medical professionals specializing in face, mouth and neck who work together to treat patients in more than 5 countries, from the most serious or complex pathologies to esthetic surgery and the most up-to-date anti-aging treatments.