Perception of oral and maxillofacial surgery by medical and dental health care professionals in Kuwait

Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) is a recently established specialty in Kuwait. The aim of this study was to assess the level of awareness regarding OMFS among dentists and physicians in general practice. One hundred dentists and 100 physicians were randomly selected to complete a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed to assess the referral patterns of certain clinical scenarios of four different categories: reconstruction, trauma, pathology, and cosmetics. Referral patterns were either to a plastic surgeon, ENT, OMF surgeon, General Surgeon, or other specialty. Both medical and dental professionals agreed on referring most cases involving the maxillofacial region to OMFS (p > 0.05), however in cases like cleft lip, cleft palate, or cleft lip and palate, the results varied widely, with dentists leaning towards referral to OMFS and physicians towards plastic surgeons (p < 0.001). Trauma cases in the maxillofacial region were generally referred to OMFS with some differences between the professionals regarding some midface fractures. Regarding oral and maxillofacial pathology both categories preferred referring to OMFS however in cases such as malignancies of the tongue, cancer of the lip, lump in the neck and salivary gland removal referral to medical specialist was preferred (p < 0.001). There was agreement that cosmetic procedures should be treated by plastic surgeons except for dentofacial deformities. In conclusion, although a recently introduced specialty, OMFS has already established itself well in the Kuwaiti society. However there are areas for improvement to provide optimal referral and treatment.