Find the best oral and facial surgeons and the best surgical team that’s right for YOU. Your surgery is your choice. Your referring doctor is not the final word. Your insurance is not the final word. And whoever has the lowest price or biggest sign is not the final word.
As the patient, YOU get to select who provides your medical care. Many jaw surgery and cleft lip and palate patients have no idea that other practitioners offer the same services they need…. They simply follow the recommendation of a referring doctor in the good-buddy network, or they go to the first listing in their health insurance website.
Here’s a quick cheat sheet on the topic. Remember this short list:
1) Experience
2) Outcomes
#1 What Matters Most When Choosing A Surgeon?
Experience.
Experience… yes it’s that important, and should be the first topic you ask about when you call to set up an appointment. If you find out NOTHING more than a comparison of how many times your exact surgery has been performed by whoever you meet with for a consultation, then you’ve looked at more than a large number of patients who get treated by ‘surgeons’ with inadequate experience.
Note: Many surgeons throughout Oklahoma simply dabble in procedures in which they proclaim to be experts. Often having only performed that surgical procedure a few times. Many oral surgeons rarely go to the hospital to operate. Our surgeons average 4-5 major surgical procedures in the hospital weekly.
**Did you know that the more experience a surgeon has, the fewer complications they have? And the surgery time and hospital stay are shorter, and therefore less expensive.
#2 What Is The Second Most Important Consideration?
Patient Outcomes.
Did you know you can ask to see photos of their patients and the results? Did you know you can ask to be put in contact with previous patients to ask about their oral surgery experience with this team? You can, and you should.
How To Choose
When choosing a practitioner for your facial surgical procedures, you must consider a few important aspects regarding the experience and capabilities of the team you select. The effects are lifelong and your health and appearance matter most.
Use this list of questions with any surgeon you meet with to help you decide who best to hire:
1) How many times have you dealt with patients with my exact condition?
2) And how did you treat that exact condition, and what was the outcome?
3) Will you put me in contact with two of your previous patients to find out from them about the experience?
4) How many times per week or month do you perform this kind of surgery?
5) Do you specialize in this procedure, and have examples of outcomes similar to what I’m seeking?
6) Do you lecture to or teach other surgeons how to perform my procedure
When choosing a surgeon it is important that they be American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Certified and perform the needed procedure often.
Dr. Steve Sullivan and Dr. Paul Tiwana have served on the Examination Committee and have personally examined hundreds of other surgeons. Dr. Fabio Ritto is the most experienced Cleft Lip and Palate Surgeon in the region.
