AWARENESS OF ORAL AND MAXILLOFACIAL SURGERY SPECIALTY AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS OF A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE: A DESCRIPTIVE CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Introducon Oral and maxillofacial surgery is a relavely young surgical specialty with roots in denstry and medicine. It has expanded with me from simple extracon of the tooth to the reconstrucon of the facial deformity using microvascular free ssue transfer. study from A total of 100 medical students were chosen by convenience sampling method. A semi-structured quesonnaire was developed in and sent to study parcipants through an internet link to assess awareness of oral and maxillofacial Data analysed by Stascal Package for Social Sciences version 22. Result The data showed that 81 (81%) of medical students have heard of oral and maxillofacial surgery specialty. Most of the students expected oral and maxillofacial surgeon for treatment of fracture of the lower jaw [86(86%)], upper jaw [89(89%)] and cheekbone [91(91%)]. Many students expected oral and maxillofacial surgeons to treat tumours of jaws [78(78%)], cysts of jaws [77(77%)], temporomandibular joint disorders [74(74%)]. Few students expected oral and maxillofacial surgeon for dental implants [16(16%)] and lip reposioning surgery [4(4%)]. The majority of medical students have heard of Oral and maxillofacial specialty; however, they are not fully aware of the experse and potenality of the specialty.


Methodology
A descrip ve cross-sec onal study was conducted from 1 September 2020 to 30 September 2020. A total of 100 medical students were chosen by convenience sampling method. A semi-structured ques onnaire was developed in Google forms and sent to study par cipants through an internet link to assess the awareness of oral and maxillofacial surgery specialty. Data were analysed by Sta s cal Package for Social Sciences version 22.

Result
The data showed that 81 (81%) of medical students have heard of oral and maxillofacial surgery specialty. Most

Conclusion
The majority of medical students have heard of Oral and maxillofacial specialty; however, they are not fully aware of the exper se and poten ality of the specialty. the world. Ques onnaire internet link was sent to par cipants through one of the social media(Facebook). This ques onnaire was designed with two parts. In the first part, the par cipants were asked whether they had heard of the special es of Ear

RESULTS
The responses of the medical students' are shown in tables 1 and 2. The prevalence of awareness of OMFS specialty was 81% (81). More than half of first-year students [33(66%)] and 48 (96%) of fourth-year students have heard of oral and maxillofacial specialty (Table 1). More than half of the students [(68) (68%)]expected a plas c surgeon to treat a cut on the face ( Table 2). Most of the students [(86 -91) (86% -91%)]expected oral and maxillofacial surgeon for treatment of fractures of the lower jaw, upper jaw and cheekbone. Regarding the pathology part, the oral and maxillofacial surgeon was preferred for the management of tumours of the jaw, cysts of the jaw, Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders by most of the students [(74-78) (74% -78%)].     . This may be because many associate oral and maxillofacial surgeons to jaws only. The findings of the study show that students are much more aware of maxillofacial trauma and pathology compared to reconstruc ve and cosme c surgery parts that are managed by oral and maxillofacial surgeons. This may be due to students being unaware of the fact that reconstruc ve and cosme c surgeries also do come under the domain of OMFS. Also, there is overlap between special es of ENT, Plas c Surgery, and OMFS with no defini ve boundaries and also, each surgeon is creden aled for a surgical procedure or consulta on, depending on his or her level of training and 6 exper se. Ameerally, et al. suggested the simpler name "Facial and Oral Surgery" instead of OMFS so that non -medical people 2 can understand too. Laskin, et al. evaluated 12 special es and showed that specialty recogni on was not a problem of OMFS alone, no name alone can ever be completely 11 descrip ve. Ifeacho, et al. compared their study with the one done 10 years back by Ameerally, et al. and concluded that there has been some improvement in the percep on of 10 the role of OMFS. OMFS originally arising from medicine, eventually became a dentally based specialty and its dual referral base can be used to widen its specialty 2,12 recogni on.

CONCLUSION
The majority of medical students have heard of the OMFS specialty, however, they are not fully aware of the exper se and poten ality of the specialty.