The Benefits of Volunteering as an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Educator

Abstract There is a faculty shortage crisis in oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) education affecting dental students, OMS residents and OMS full-time faculty. This paper is designed to help non-academic OMS practitioners better understand the problem and appreciate the potential benefits of volunteering as a part-time faculty member. Volunteer part-time faculty can help bolster the efforts of the faculty leaders (full-time and part-time) by taking on some of the dental student and/or resident educational responsibilities. They can also help free-up some of the full-time faculty members’ time to allow them to do the scholarly activities required of full-time academicians. Volunteer part-time faculty can greatly benefit from their involvement in dental education. Exposure to faculty leaders as well as dental students and residents can be educationally enriching and stimulating for volunteer part-time faculty. Students and residents may benefit from learning differing approaches to patient management volunteer part-time faculty can provide. In addition, volunteer part-time faculty may have a scope of practice or practice emphasis that differs from and complements that of the faculty leaders. Finally, residents may also benefit from exposure to private practice management strategies volunteer part-time faculty can share. This paper explores how all parties can benefit from OMS faculty volunteerism.