Apr 30, 2018
The American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (ABOMS) began reviewing its Board Certification process in 2014. Both the Qualifying Examination (QE) and the Oral Certifying Examination (OCE) were reviewed for relevance, intent, content and consistency. The goal was to ceate a more meanignful and comprehensive program for board certification.
The purpose of the oral examination is to evaluate the critical thought process of a candidate to demonstrate on-the-fly thinking, synthesizing core knowledge and applying this to realistic, mainstream office and hospital-based scenarios. After consulting with the Board's pyschometrician, the directors determined the appropriate content and delivery for the examination. Beginning in 2019, the OCE will be presented in three sections, each with four twelve-minute cases. The examination will total 144 minutes rather than the 200-minute exam in previous years.
All content currently covered in the board certification process will remain unchanged, with some covered in a slightly different fashion. The section topics for the 2019 OCE are:
| Section I | Section II | Section III |
| Pathology | Dentoalveolar Surgery | Adult Medical Assessment/Anesthesia |
| Infections | Trauma | Office Based Emergency Management |
| TMJ | Implants | Pediatric Medical Assessment/Anesthesia |
| Orthognathic Surgery | Reconstruction | Focused Topics |
Candidates for the oral examination can reach out to the ABOMS headquarters to join a study group with colleagues. More information regarding Focused Topics will be released in this section of the ABOMS website later this summer.