What's the Difference Between an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon and a Plastic Surgeon?
When it comes to cosmetic surgery of the head and the neck?
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There really is no difference in terms of what potentially a plastic surgeon or a maxillofacial surgeon can do with faces.
In fact a maxillofacial surgeon is the ultimate specialist in facial surgery, and specifically only operate on faces. Maxillofacial means jaws and face, because the jaws constitute about 2/3rds of the face… To truly modify a face structurally and cosmetically is really a combined face-jaw operation.
A plastic surgeon only does a little facial surgery, and is really into just fixing general deformity body-wide (they are also popularised as breast surgeons, though no plastic surgeon is ever trained in performing cosmetic breast surgery during their basic training… they learn the art after they enter private practice).
Everyone thinks Plastic Surgeons are the ultimate "cosmetic" or beauty surgeon… mostly because some TV shows says so (like "extreme makeover"). Because of this, most people go to a plastic surgeon for facial surgery.
This is a wrong thing, as most plastic surgeons have very basic or superficial training in facial surgery (they will tell you differently of course). Given enough time and private demand though, some plastic surgeons becone reasonably good in some basic facial cosmetic procedures…. but this is usually skin deep only…. or they are limited to Botox clinics. Plastic surgeons cannot do bony reconstructive or major bony surgery… some try, but fail badly, to the detriment of the patient… it’s an ego thing.
For true bony (or scaffold) surgery to the face, only a maxillofacial surgeon is trully trained across all aspects of the surgical art of global facial surgery… Maxillofacial surgeons usually do both medicine and dentistry as basic training, and then super train in surgery, subspecialising in maxillofacial surgery. A few dentists also do plastic surgery, but only because, on a competive choice, they failed to gain entry into a maxillofacial training programme… so plastics was the next best thing.
Cheers
a plastic surgeon does surgery on all parts of your body, face, legs, butt etc. The other one does surgery on your mouth and head and is not basically a cosmetic surgeon.