Welcome to the Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery. The department provides consultative, diagnostic, and therapeutic services to patients with problems of the oral cavity, maxillofacial region, and head & neck. Conditions treated include: odontogenic/head & neck infections, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) problems, facial trauma, dentofacial deformities, head & neck cancer, pathological conditions of and/or injuries to the maxillo-mandibular complex, cleft and craniofacial abnormalities, cosmetic deformities of the face, head & neck, surgical management of the complex airway, and snoring and sleep apnea.

Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center - Shreveport (LSUHSC-S) serves a metropolitan area of over 300,000 in an attractive, progressive city in Northwest Louisiana. LSU Health Sciences Center is a Level 1 Trauma Center, Organ Transplantation Center, and major tertiary medical referral center for East Texas, Southern Arkansas, and the northern half of Louisiana. The Health Sciences Center has full-time department heads in all clinical services with accredited residency training programs. There is also a strong basic science faculty with separate departments who work closely with the clinical services. A 10-story Biomedical Research Center adjoining LSUHSC-S opened in 1994. Recent clinical additions include a Comprehensive Cancer Center, Women's and Children's Center, and an Ambulatory Care Center.

The full-time Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery academic faculty are dedicated to resident teaching and supervision. Several clinical and basic science research programs have developed with emphasis in the areas of head & neck oncologic surgery, cleft and craniofacial surgery, microvascular reconstructive surgery, oral implantology, and the surgical management of obstructive sleep apnea.

The Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery has administrative offices and adjacent research space in the old Allied Health Professions Building. The clinical residency training program is headquartered in the LSU main hospital and has a busy ambulatory care outpatient clinic, full-scope surgical training, and a pediatric dentistry division. In addition, the department fosters a fully accredited 2-year fellowship training program in head & neck oncologic/microvascular reconstructive surgery, as well as a fully accredited 1-year fellowship training program in cleft & craniofacial surgery.  Additional resident training/OMFS specialty services, including the faculty practice and specialty clinics, are available on the Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery service maintained at the Willis-Knighton South Physician Center — part of the Willis-Knighton Hospital System, a full-service private health care system. A newly integrated trans-oral robotic surgery curriculum utilizing the da Vinci Robotic System is now in use at LSUHSC - Shreveport, and both the Willis-Knighton North and South Hospital Centers as well.

Dental students can elect to participate in a 1-4 week elective externship program during their third or fourth year. A newly constructed basic science laboratory as well as microsurgical training lab is available for resident training in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, and has recently been opened to all other surgical subspecialties for continued training for faculty and residents alike. Academic projects, both in clinical and laboratory research, are encouraged and supported. There is a broad clinical experience, supplemented by didactic weekly teaching activities, to provide a unique educational exposure to all aspects of adult and pediatric Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery.

A Message from the Chair  G. E. Ghali, DDS, MD, FACS Jack W. Gamble Chair in     Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Professor Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Director Cleft & Craniofacial     Surgery Fellowship