Oral surgeon title review finds no threat to public safety

News

28 Feb 2025

Key points
An independent rapid review has found use of the title, ‘oral surgeon’, has not caused serious physical or financial harm or a loss in confidence in the safety of services provided by oral surgeons. Patients typically are referred from either a dental or medical practitioner before seeing an oral surgeon. In the past five years (2019-2024), 19 complaints were made against oral surgeons, and one advertising offence was recorded against an oral surgeon. Ahpra and the Dental Board of Australia have accepted all of the recommendations and plan to conduct a future public consultation into dental specialist titles, including the public’s understanding of the titles.

Key points

An independent rapid review has found use of the title, ‘oral surgeon’, has not caused serious physical or financial harm or a loss in confidence in the safety of services provided by oral surgeons.
Patients typically are referred from either a dental or medical practitioner before seeing an oral surgeon.
In the past five years (2019-2024), 19 complaints were made against oral surgeons, and one advertising offence was recorded against an oral surgeon.
Ahpra and the Dental Board of Australia have accepted all of the recommendations and plan to conduct a future public consultation into dental specialist titles, including the public’s understanding of the titles.

An independent rapid review into the protected title ‘oral surgeon’ has found that its use does not pose a threat to public safety.

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) commissioned an independent, targeted review into the protected title oral surgeon in September 2024, following a concern that the title was misleading, and its use could cause physical and financial harm to the public.

The report found that while there was minimal risk, Ahpra should consider ways of enhancing people’s understanding about dental specialities in general, as well as the title oral surgeon.

The title review examined Ahpra’s complaint data relating to oral surgeons. It found that over the past five years (2019-2024), 19 complaints were made. While one of these cases resulted in an oral surgeon being cautioned, the rest did not require regulatory action from the Board. One advertising offence was also recorded against an oral surgeon in the same period.

Ahpra acting CEO Kym Ayscough said the review was undertaken to establish whether there were any significant risks to the public requiring regulatory action.

‘It’s reassuring to confirm that there is no evidence of harm being caused by the use of the title ‘oral surgeon’ for this specialty,’ Ms Ayscough said.

The review recommended a full public consultation of all specialist dental titles to gauge their suitability and the Board would be preparing for this to be undertaken in 2025-26.

There are only 66 oral surgeons in Australia, with the majority working in rural and regional public health settings. To work in the specialty and hold the protected title of ‘oral surgeon’, the practitioners must be appropriately qualified and registered with the Dental Board of Australia.

The report is available on the National Scheme reports and reviews page of the Ahpra website.