Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Clinical Sciences

Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Clinical Sciences

Overview of the Department

This department was established on the 1st of May 2013 following the amalgamation of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Clinical Sciences and the Oral Pathology & Oral Medicine section of the Department of Oral Pathology, Oral Medicine and Periodontology. This is a new academic department responsible for the teaching and research in the disciplines of Oral Pathology, Oral Medicine and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. The department is accountable for the conduct of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in all three specialties.

Oral-maxillofacial Surgical and Medical Sciences is a hospital-based discipline where dentistry and the surgical and medical managment of patients and diseases overlap. Teaching for undergraduate and postgraduate encompasses the diagnosis and management of medical and surgical conditions of the oral cavity, jaws and surrounding structures. Examples of these include oral manifestation of systemic diseases, orofacial infections, facial pain, dental anomalies, traumatic injuries of the face, oral malignancies, facial skeletal discrepancies, congenital facial deformities such as cleft lip & palate, and oral reconstruction for surgically related problem.

For the undergraduate, courses offered by this department form part of the requirement that leads to the undergraduate receiving a Bachelor in Dental Surgery, which is a professional degree allowing them to practise dentistry.

At a higher level, this department offers postgraduate courses and/or training that enable a dentist to be eventually registered as a specialist. Postgraduate programmes in Oral Pathology and Oral Medicine started in 1998 while for the discipline of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, it started in the late 90s as part of the Fellowship in Dental Surgery training programme. The Oral Pathology and Oral Medicine postgraduate programme started off with Master in Dental Science followed by Master in Clinical Dentistry (Oral Pathology and Oral Medicine; Periodontology). Later the Master in Dental Surgery was introduced. The Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery postgraduate programme started in a similar manner. Both the Master in Clinical Dentistry (Oral Pathology) and Master in Clinical Dentistry (Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery) are 4-year full-time coursework specialist programmes. Research forms an intergral component of postgraduate training. In fact, currently this deparmtent also offers research-based course that leads to the award of Master in Dental Science (MDSc) or Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).

Besides its academic teaching and research activities, this department is also involved in provision of Specialist Oral & Maxillofacial Surgical and Oral Medical services to the public at the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinics and Oral Medicine Clinics in the Faculty of Dentistry as well as in the University of Malaya Medical Centre. These clinics provide specialist treatment by lecturers. Cases seen in these clinics include those referred from other clinics in the Faculty, University of Malaya Medical Centre and other government or private clinics. We also provide a 24x7 on-call service for the Accidents & Emergencies Unit of the medical centre. The Oral Pathology section of this department provide expert histopathology diagnosis for the dental and medical fraternity.

Head of Department

Associate Professor Dr Kathreena Kadir
Specialist in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery
(Head of Department)