It is my great honour as the Head of the Dental & Maxillofacial Surgery Department at the Sultan Qaboos University to welcome you all to our Department’s webpage. 

The Department was established in 1986 as a teaching Department within the College of Medicine. With the opening of the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital in 1990, the clinical services provided by the department started with only primary dental care services. Over the past 3 decades, the department has undergone major developments and now provides primary, secondary and tertiary Dental and Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery services. Starting from July 2017, the Department was renamed to the Dental & Maxillofacial Surgery Department replacing the old name “Oral Health Department” There are 15 doctors, 5 technicians and 14 supporting medical and dental staff working in harmony to fulfil the department’s role of excellence in clinical care in addition to teaching, research and training. 

Teaching is an integral part of the department’s daily activities. The Dental & Maxillofacial Surgery Department is involved in both undergraduate and postgraduate training and teaching. As part of the new curriculum for the MD student, the department is involved in the pre-clerkship and junior clerkship teaching. Starting from academic year 2015-2016, the department has introduced a new attachment of Oral Health rotations for the BMS students. Postgraduate training and teaching is developing within the department and currently we are providing training and teaching for graduated dental surgeons and interns passing through the department from Ministry of Health institutions. The Department is involved in the postgraduate clinical training of the Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery residency program and General Dentistry residency program of Oman Medical Specialty Board. 

The research activities are slowly progressing within our department. Currently smaller research projects are undergoing and with the involvement in more postgraduate teaching and training we are hoping the research activities will be developing to a satisfactory level. Our staff are actively involving in scholarly activities by presenting at national and international dental and oral & maxillofacial surgery conferences and as well as publication in peer reviewed journals. 
Starting from March 2015, the department was restructured into 2 units, namely the Dental Unit and the Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Unit. The Dental Unit provides General Dental care, Special Needs Dentistry, Paediatric Dentistry, Orthodontics, Prosthodontics, and endodontics and is very much an OPD oriented care. The Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Unit provides secondary and tertiary oral surgical care in OPD and for in-patients. 
Currently we are working steadily to towards achieving the vision of the Dental & Maxillofacial Surgery Department, which aspires to be recognized internationally as a leading centre of excellence in clinical care, teaching and research. 

Dr. Ali Murad Al Mullahi
Head of Dental & Maxillofacial Surgery Department