The Complete Guide to Becoming An Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon
The real job, the real pay, the real path — and how to know if you have what it takes before you invest a decade of training.
by Alumigogo Books
non-fiction
What does an oral surgeon actually do all day? What do they really earn? And is the 12-year training grind worth it for you? Straight answers inside.
About this book
You've heard oral and maxillofacial surgeons make great money — and they do — but you probably haven't heard what it costs to get there: 4 years of college, 4 years of dental or medical school, and 4-6 years of surgical residency where you'll work 80-hour weeks for a resident's salary. You also haven't heard what the job is actually like beyond the paycheck: pulling impacted wisdom teeth at 7:30 AM, placing dental implants between lunch meetings, and getting called into the ER at 2 AM to wire a shattered jaw from a car accident.
This guide gives you the full picture. Chapter 1 walks you through a realistic day — the mix of routine extractions, complex reconstructions, and trauma cases — so you can picture yourself doing it. Later chapters break down the actual earnings by experience level and region, compare the two training pathways (MD vs. MD-optional), and give you a hard-nosed self-assessment to figure out if you have the manual dexterity, emotional stamina, and patience for a 12-year haul.
You'll also get practical advice on landing your first job after residency, a snapshot of what career growth looks like over 30 years, and honest answers to the questions everyone asks but no one answers directly — Is the debt worth it? Can I have a family during training? What happens if I wash out of residency? If you're serious about this career, read this before you apply to a single program.
Reader Reviews
Nicholas Robinson
★★★★★Decent overview, but I was hoping for more specifics on the actual cost breakdown of the training paths. The chapter on daily life was useful — it made me realize I'd be doing way more wisdom teeth than jaw reconstructions, which honestly changed my expectations. Seems accurate based on what my cousin (who's an OMFS resident) tells me.
Donald Wright
★★★★★I'm a second-year dental student weighing OMFS versus orthodontics, and this helped me think through the trade-offs. It didn't try to sell me on the career — actually it made me question whether I have the patience for the residency grind. That's probably a good thing. I wish there were a bit more info on the tech side of things like 3D imaging and virtual surgical planning though.
Brian Flores
★★★★★Best career guide I've read on this specialty, and I've read a lot of them. The first chapter about the actual day-to-day was worth the price alone — I didn't realize how much time is spent on routine extractions versus complex cases. It also gave me a realistic salary expectation instead of the inflated numbers you see on medical career sites. Plus the self-assessment checklist in chapter 2 is brutally honest. Highly recommend for anyone on the fence.
Michael Johnson
★★★★★It's fine. Readable, well-organized, and the pay tables are useful. But it felt like it glossed over how insane the residency years are — there was a moment in chapter 6 where it described a 6 AM start and a 9 PM trauma call like it was normal, which I get, but I wanted a bit more about the burnout rate. Still, I'll keep it on my shelf for reference.
Susan Brown
★★★★★As a 35-year-old mom of two considering a mid-career shift into medicine, this was the first guide that spelled out exactly what the 12-year path would look like with a family — and whether it was even feasible. I appreciated the real talk about night call and weekends, and the chapter on earnings gave me the numbers I needed to talk to my husband about this seriously. I've already recommended it to my daughter's pre-health advisor.
Anna Ramirez
★★★★★Helpful overall, but a bit dry in places. The chapter on breaking in — landing your first job — gave me a solid checklist for what to do in my final year of residency, so I'd say it's worth picking up for that alone. The reviews section at the end answered some practical questions I had about job security and geographic flexibility. Not the most exciting read, but career guides aren't supposed to be.
Matthew Green
★★★★★This is the book I wish I'd had as a junior pre-med. It doesn't just tell you what an OMFS does — it shows you, with real examples like sitting down for a 7 AM third-molar surgery and then spending the evening in the hospital facial trauma unit. The salary breakdown by region was spot on, and the self-assessment section made me realize I'm probably better suited for general dentistry, which saved me years of wasted effort. If you're at all curious, read this first.