Personal Narrative: A Career As An Oral Surgeon

Snap, crackle, and pop, are often words heard only when eating cereal, however, to an Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon they are quite common sounds, heard nearly every tooth extraction. Oral and Maxillofacial surgeons are often a mix between a dentist and a medical doctor, because they often have degrees in both. Oral surgeons treat head and neck injuries, which can include trauma, cancer, and cosmetic surgery, along with dental alveolar, and orthognathic surgery. The patients of an Oral surgeon range from the everyday wisdom tooth extraction in teenagers, to small children with cleft palates, to elderly patients getting implants, to severe trauma. In short the Oral Surgeon sees a wide variety of patients and covers a vast amount of medical

Oral Surgeons generally pick their own hours and have a low pressure atmosphere, because most of the operations Oral Surgeons conduct are generally not extreme. My father and grandfather are both Oral and Maxillofacial surgeons. As a small child I remember visiting my dad in his office and he showed me a tooth he had just pulled out. I thought it was great, and I remember going home and preforming surgery on all of my stuffed animals. I have since gotten older, and changed in many ways, however, my desire to become an Oral Surgeon like my dad has not changed. Last summer I was allowed to shadow him in his office and clean the rooms after he was done. I love watching him work and it amazes me how much he knows about the human

In East Tennessee Oral Surgeons get paid a yearly average around $242,827-$283,842. To be an Oral Surgeon one must have many personal qualities to fit the job such as leadership. Leadership is important because Oral Surgeons have a lot of responsibility, as do many in the medical field, resting on their shoulders. Oral Surgeons will also be in charge of staff members, and their businesses will not survive or prosper if they have a laissez faire approach. To be an oral surgeon one must also have endurance and perseverance, without which, they will not make it through the strenuous years of college. Another important personal quality is being able to remain calm in a stressful environment. Things can always go wrong and Oral surgeons that panic will only make the situation