INTRODUCTION

Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery is a branch of dentistry which deals with diagnosis and treatment of various diseases, injuries and defects involving the orofacial region. The face is the window of human personality, hence facial deformity has enormous psychological implications. Jaw diseases also affect masticatory ability, thus making the life of these individuals miserable. The Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons play a big role in restoring the quality of life and bringing these people in main stream. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Rural Dental College was established in the year 1989. Maxillofacial OPD serves as an area for management of major maxillofacial problems such as fractures of the facial skeleton, odontogenic infections, cysts and tumors of the jaw corrections, cosmetic jaw corrections, distraction osteogenesis, oral sub mucous fibrosis and temporomandibular joint surgeries, etc. Preoperative assessment and postoperative follow-up are also the major areas covered by this department. TMJ replacement surgeries, three-dimensional reconstructive surgeries, Rapid Prototyping, Laser surgeries, Microvascular surgeries, zygoma Implantology are advanced surgeries performed by our department. To keep up the standards of the post graduate education, we are conducting regular seminar, journal club, continued dental education, case presentations and sending post graduate students to receive special training in cleft lip and palate and oncology from various institutions like TATA memorial hospital Mumbai, Kidawai Hospital Bengaluru and GSR Institute of craniofacial and plastic surgery, Hyderabad.