There are many on-line tools for continuing education in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery.

• The e-Face project was set up in conjunction with the NHS e-Learning for Healthcare project. It contains a range of modules from those covering generic skills through to those dedicated to speciality-specific topics such as radiology for maxillofacial trauma. Further information can be found on the e-Face page.
• The AO Foundation have a range of information freely available through their site, ranging from smartphone applications through to procedure videos.
• The Facebook School of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery is designed to provide regular up-dates to surgical news, evidence-based practice and links to courses, meetings and lectures. The emphasis is to ensure an efficient portal for continued medical education.

6 February 2019: Children’s Oral Health e-learning programme now live

Health Education England e-Learning for Healthcare (HEE e-LfH) has worked with the Faculty of Dentistry, the Royal College of Surgeons and UCL Eastman Dental Institute and Hospital to develop a new Children’s Oral Health e-learning programme.

This free e-learning programme provides information and advice about children’s oral health. It is aimed at parents, expectant mothers, early years healthcare workers, teachers, nurses, GPs and the public.

Children’s Oral Health Advice programme aims to help learners support children to maintain good oral health. It covers the main causes of tooth decay and simple actions that can be taken to prevent the problem. It also explains when a child’s primary (baby) and adult (permanent) teeth start to appear, and what you should do if a tooth is knocked out. By the end of the session users will have developed their knowledge of oral health and be more confident in providing children’s oral health advice.

The programme consists of one e-learning session that will take about 20 minutes to complete with a number of self-assessment questions throughout the learning which enable understanding of the key points to be checked.

Further e-learning sessions are planned for 2019 to support the understanding of children’s oral health advice for the health and care workforce.

The e-learning assessment is available on the e-LfH Hub and via AICC links.

A joint e-learning initiative.

Sponsored by: The International Association of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons, UK co-sponsor Synthes and The Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh.

All you need is broadband internet and speakers. Webcam and microphone are optional as you can ask questions by typing it in the interactive window. Setup of software takes about 10mins and involves downloading JAVA software from WebEx. Link to join the live meeting will download the software automatically.

You can now follow this project on Facebook by joining ProjecTrain group

For more information please email Satheesh Prabhu

2008 GMC (PMETB) Report on Training in OMFS

The Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB) was a new body started in 2008 set up to manage training in medicine. It only lasted a few years and was absorbed into the General Medical Council. The PMETB Report on Training in OMFS is the most expensive and extensive review of training in any surgical specialty. Initiated and co-chaired by the Chief Dental Officer at the time, it was clear the CDO had an agenda to split the specialty into Oral Surgery and Maxillofacial Surgery. This agenda was highlighted by the fact that the only two hospitals he planned to visit in this "review of OMFS training" did not have any OMFS trainees, and one did not have any OMFS surgeons! The evidence provided by patients, hospitals Trusts, trainees, doctors/surgeons from other specialties and training bodies meant his ambitions were frustrated. The first recommendation of the review was “There should be no change to the current statutory requirement for those training in OMFS to obtain primary qualifications in both medicine and dentistry”.

For OMFS trainees who are not aware of this document, it should be essential reading particularly in the context of Peter Brennan's recent article in BMJ Careers

The GMC, in a recent update of its website, has deleted reference to the 2008 Review of Training in OMFS so BAOMS is happy to host it here.

2014 GMC Small Specialty Review of Training in OMFS
OMFS was the first small specialty to be reviewed by the GMC. This document is very supportive of training in OMFS.

2011 - GMC Position Statement on OMFS for Foundation and Core Trainees
This documents issues related to Foundation Training and Core Training in medicine and specialty training in OMFS.