The Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) requires an oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS, often abbreviated OMFS) residency to run a minimum of four years of full-time study, with at least 120 weeks devoted to clinical OMS inside that time.
That's an accreditation floor, not a typical length — for an actual figure, per the CODA/ADA HPI survey, accredited OMS programs averaged 53.1 months in 2025-26.
It's also a longer floor than any other CODA specialty standard sourced here: endodontics, orthodontics, and pediatric dentistry are each set at a 24-month floor.
What CODA actually requires
Program length is set by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA), whose accreditation standards carry the minimum-duration requirements cited on this page.
For OMS, the standard is explicit: an advanced dental education program in OMS "must encompass a minimum duration of four (4) years of full-time study."
A second requirement in the same standard adds a floor inside that time — a minimum of 120 weeks devoted specifically to clinical OMS training.
Both numbers are floors set by the accrediting standard, not a report of how long programs actually run.
For an actual figure: per the CODA/ADA HPI survey of advanced dental education, accredited OMS programs averaged 53.1 months in 2025-26 — an average across programs, not a requirement.
Why OMS sets the longest floor sourced here
All four specialties covered here are accredited by CODA, and each standard sets its own minimum duration.
Three land at the same 24-month floor; OMS is set apart at double that, with a 120-week clinical-OMS requirement inside it:
| Specialty | CODA minimum duration |
|---|---|
| Endodontics | 24 months of full-time study |
| Orthodontics & Dentofacial Orthopedics | 24 months and 3,700 scheduled hours |
| Pediatric Dentistry | 24 months of full-time formal training |
| Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery | 4 years of full-time study, plus a minimum 120 weeks of clinical OMS |
Orthodontics is the only one of the other three whose standard also names an hours figure (3,700 scheduled hours) alongside its 24-month floor.
These are all accreditation minimums, not typical lengths — treat every figure in this table as a floor a program must meet, not a report of what programs actually run.
The MD/DO question — what the standard says
CODA's OMS standard allows required instruction to be met through a medical degree: "This instruction may be met through the completion of the requirements for the M.D./D.O. or any other advanced degrees."
In other words, coursework taken for an M.D./D.O. may satisfy some of the standard's biomedical science instruction requirements.
That's the whole of what the standard establishes here, and it's worth being precise about what it doesn't: the four-year/120-week floor is the only duration the standard sets — it does not define a separate, longer track for MD/DO training, and it does not require a resident to earn an MD or DO.
A six-year length for an MD/DO track is not something CODA's standard states — it does not define a "6-year" track — and this article doesn't repeat it.
As for how many OMS programs offer an MD option, that count comes from the CODA/ADA HPI survey, not the standard: 51 institutions offered programs with an MD option, out of 103 OMS programs, in 2025-26.
What the sources on this page don't cover
What fills the four years
The residency trains the specialty's own definition: the diagnosis, and the surgical and adjunctive treatment, of diseases, injuries and defects involving the hard and soft tissues of the oral and maxillofacial region — the National Commission on Recognition of Dental Specialties and Certifying Boards' definition of oral and maxillofacial surgery.
The CODA standard also names specific requirements inside it: dental implant training must include didactic and clinical experience in comprehensive preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative management of the implant patient, and residents must spend at least 32 weeks on anesthesia and medical services — at least 20 of them on the anesthesia service, functioning as an anesthesia resident.
Alongside them stands the requirement this page leads with: at least 120 weeks of the program devoted to clinical OMS training.
For how this residency fits into the full path from dental school through licensure, see how to become an oral surgeon.
Who are OMFS residents — and how many are there?
An OMFS resident is a dentist in specialty training — enrolled in one of the accredited oral and maxillofacial surgery programs the CODA/ADA HPI survey counts.
Per that 2025-26 survey, 103 OMS programs were operating in 2025-26, with 285 first-year residents, 1,307 residents enrolled across all program years, and 257 graduates in 2025.
How hard those seats are to get is its own subject — see how competitive OMS residency is for the applicant, position, and matched counts.
Whether residents are paid during training is a separate question with its own data: 90 of the 103 programs paid first-year residents a stipend in 2025-26 — see do dental residents get paid for what those stipends averaged, and why the survey calls them stipends rather than salaries.
After the minimum: board certification
Finishing residency isn't the end of the certification path.
The specialty's certifying board is the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (ABOMS) — one of 11 boards recognized by the National Commission on Recognition of Dental Specialties and Certifying Boards for dentistry's 12 recognized specialties.
Board certification is generally voluntary rather than legally required to practice, but it is the board the National Commission recognizes for this specialty.
See how ABOMS certification actually works — the two exams, and the three-year window between them.
The specialty this training leads to also carries its own BLS occupational code — SOC 29-1022, with a national median of $352,220 a year (OEWS, May 2025), the highest of the dental specialties BLS tracks separately.
See the oral surgeon salary guide for the full percentile breakdown.
For how residency admission and certification work across the dental specialties — not just OMS — see dental residency & board certification.
For a side-by-side of how the residency changes an OMS's scope versus a general dentist's, see oral surgeon vs. general dentist.
This article summarizes CODA's published accreditation standards for general information; it is not admissions or legal advice. Confirm current requirements directly with CODA (coda.ada.org) or the program you're evaluating.