Board certification from the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (ABOMS) is voluntary — it's not a license, and it isn't required to work as an oral and maxillofacial surgeon.
The path runs through two exams: a computer-based Qualifying Examination, then an Oral Certifying Examination, with three consecutive years to pass the second after passing the first.
Passing both confers Diplomate of ABOMS status.
Board certification is voluntary — and it isn't a license
ABOMS certification is a voluntary professional credential, not a legal requirement to practice.
The legal requirement is state dental licensure, which every practicing oral and maxillofacial surgeon must hold after completing residency — see how to become an oral surgeon for that full path.
Certification sits on top of licensure, not in place of it.
An oral surgeon can be fully licensed and practicing without ever sitting the ABOMS exams.
Most pursue certification anyway, because it's a widely recognized standard among the general dentists and orthodontists who refer cases in, and it's often expected for hospital operating-room privileges.
The two-exam path: Qualifying Exam, then Oral Certifying Exam
Certification begins after residency, with a Qualifying Examination (QE): a computer-based test of 300 multiple-choice questions, including 30 unscored pretest items mixed in to try out future questions, spanning 11 subject areas of the specialty.
Passing the QE opens the door to the Oral Certifying Examination (OCE) — a case-based exam in three sections, each built from four 12-minute cases, for 144 minutes of case examination in total.
For what the residency leading up to these exams actually requires, see the CODA-set four-year minimum.
The three-year window between the two exams
Passing the QE starts a clock: candidates have three consecutive years after passing the Qualifying Examination to pass the Oral Certifying Examination.
That's the defined window ABOMS publishes for its own two-exam sequence.
The other three dental specialty boards run genuinely different structures, not the same process with different names — this is a shape comparison, not a difficulty ranking, and nothing published by any board supports calling one harder than another:
| Board | Structure |
|---|---|
| ABOMS (oral & maxillofacial surgery) | Two exams — QE, then OCE within 3 consecutive years of passing the QE |
| American Board of Orthodontics | Two exams — Written, then Clinical; no time limit to start the Clinical, but a 10-year window to finish it once started |
| American Board of Pediatric Dentistry | Two exams on a fixed annual calendar (QE in May; OCE applications open the following January), with a 7-year outer limit from residency completion |
| American Board of Endodontics | Three exams — Written, Case History, and Oral — the only one of the four with a case-history stage |
What passing confers — Diplomate of ABOMS
Successful completion of both the QE and the OCE confers Diplomate of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery status.
It's the credential referring dentists look for and, at many hospitals, a practical prerequisite for operating-room privileges — see oral surgeon vs. general dentist for how that referral relationship works day to day.
Because certification is voluntary, not every practicing OMS holds it, and this article makes no claim about what share do.
What ABOMS doesn't publish — and what this article won't guess
Where certification fits — and what the specialty pays
Board certification is the step after residency, not a substitute for it — see the CODA-set four-year residency minimum for what comes before these two exams, or how to become an oral surgeon for the complete path from dental school onward.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks oral and maxillofacial surgeons under their own occupational code, SOC 29-1022, with a national median of $352,220 a year (OEWS, May 2025).
That figure covers the occupation as a whole; BLS doesn't break it out by certification status, and this article makes no claim that ABOMS certification itself changes pay.
See the oral surgeon salary guide for the percentile breakdown, or browse current oral surgeon openings.
This article summarizes ABOMS's published certification requirements for general information; it is not licensing or admissions advice. Requirements are periodically revised — confirm current requirements directly with ABOMS (aboms.org).