The Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) requires an oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) 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 — CODA doesn't publish how long programs actually run beyond it.
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 for every dental specialty is set by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA), the same body that accredits dental schools.
For oral and maxillofacial surgery, Standard 4-1 is explicit: an advanced dental education program in OMS "must encompass a minimum duration of four (4) years of full-time study." Standard 4-2 adds a second floor inside that time — a minimum of 120 weeks devoted specifically to clinical OMS training, not general coursework or rotations.
Both numbers are floors set by the accrediting standard, not a report of how long programs actually run.
CODA's standards don't publish an average or typical program length, and no verified figure for actual OMS residency lengths beyond the four-year minimum exists in our research — so this article states the minimum precisely and doesn't guess at what's typical.
Why OMS sets the longest floor in dentistry
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 plus a dedicated clinical-weeks requirement none of the other three carries:
| Specialty | CODA minimum duration |
|---|---|
| Endodontics | 24 months full-time (Standard 4-1) |
| Orthodontics & Dentofacial Orthopedics | 24 months and 3,700 scheduled hours (Standard 4-1) |
| Pediatric Dentistry | 24 months full-time formal training (Standard 4-3) |
| Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery | 4 years full-time, plus a minimum 120 weeks clinical OMS (Standards 4-1 & 4-2) |
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 integrated MD/DO question — bounded
CODA's OMS standard names a second track: "integrated MD or DO/oral and maxillofacial surgery training programs." Where a program is integrated this way, coursework taken for the medical degree and the general-surgery residency year inside it may satisfy some of the standard's requirements.
That's the whole of what the standard establishes, and it's worth being precise about what it doesn't: it sets no length for an integrated program beyond the same four-year/120-week floor, it does not require an MD or DO for OMS licensure or practice, and it gives no count of how many OMS programs are integrated versus dental-only.
A specific added length for the MD/DO track — commonly cited elsewhere as "six years" — is not something CODA's standard states, and this article doesn't repeat it.
What's still unverified here
What fills the four years
The training is built around the full scope of the specialty: dentoalveolar surgery (impacted teeth and complex extractions), dental implant placement, orthognathic (corrective jaw) surgery, treatment of facial trauma and fractures, and management of oral pathology.
Residents also administer the full range of anesthesia and sedation, which is part of why hospital-based rotations in medicine, anesthesia, and general surgery sit alongside the OMS-specific caseload.
That breadth is what the 120-week clinical-OMS floor is measuring — a substantial, protected block of hands-on surgical training inside the four years, distinct from time spent on coursework, research, or rotations outside the specialty.
For how that training fits into the full path from dental school through licensure, see how to become an oral surgeon.
After the minimum: board certification
Finishing residency isn't the last step most OMS take.
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's a widely recognized standard the referring dentists who drive an OMS practice look for.
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) — typically the highest-paid specialty in dentistry.
See the oral surgeon salary guide for the full percentile breakdown.
For the mechanics of residency admission, the match, and how certification works across all 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. Standards are periodically revised — confirm current requirements directly with CODA (coda.ada.org) or the program you're evaluating.