---
title: "Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon"
description: "Perform surgery and related procedures on the hard and soft tissues of the oral and maxillofacial regions to treat diseases, injuries, or defects. May…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/oral-and-maxillofacial-surgeon"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon

**Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-1022 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-1022.00

Perform surgery and related procedures on the hard and soft tissues of the oral and maxillofacial regions to treat diseases, injuries, or defects. May diagnose problems of the oral and maxillofacial regions. May perform surgery to improve function or appearance.

Also advertised as: DDS (Dental Surgery Doctor); Maxillofacial Surgeon; Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Resident; Oral Surgeon; Surgeon.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $352,220 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $169.34/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $86,250 to $622,640, with the middle half between $204,610 and $428,710
- **Total US employment:** 4,910
- **Typical entry education:** Doctorate
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +5.6% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 200 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 57/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 4,910 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $86,250 |
| 25th | $204,610 |
| 50th (median) | $352,220 |
| 75th | $428,710 |
| 90th | $622,640 |
| Mean (average) | $346,490 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| PA | $553,740 | $567,519 | Not published by BLS |
| MN | $475,250 | $481,895 | 40 |
| RI | $414,060 | $404,830 | Not published by BLS |
| VA | $403,430 | $399,025 | 210 |
| CO | $360,820 | $350,134 | Not published by BLS |
| NY | $342,710 | $317,556 | 350 |
| AZ | $322,800 | $320,629 | Not published by BLS |
| AL | $239,200+ | Not comparable (top-coded) | 130 |
| AK | $239,200+ | Not comparable (top-coded) | 40 |
| IA | $239,200+ | Not comparable (top-coded) | Not published by BLS |
| NH | $239,200+ | Not comparable (top-coded) | Not published by BLS |
| ND | $239,200+ | Not comparable (top-coded) | Not published by BLS |
| SC | $239,200+ | Not comparable (top-coded) | Not published by BLS |
| FL | $233,050 | $225,356 | Not published by BLS |
| NC | $224,040 | $237,517 | Not published by BLS |

3 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 18 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/oral-and-maxillofacial-surgeon/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/oral-and-maxillofacial-surgeon.

Values shown as $239,200+ exceed the BLS publication ceiling; exact figures are not published.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 5,600 in the 2025–2035 base year to 5,900 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 300 jobs, or +5.6%. Faster than average: 5.6% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 200 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Doctoral or professional degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Internship/residency.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 72.2% |
| Doctoral Degree | 19.8% |
| First Professional Degree | 8.0% |

## What the work involves

- Administer general and local anesthetics.
- Remove impacted, damaged, and non-restorable teeth.
- Evaluate the position of the wisdom teeth to determine whether problems exist currently or might occur in the future.
- Treat infections of the oral cavity, salivary glands, jaws, and neck.
- Collaborate with other professionals, such as restorative dentists and orthodontists, to plan treatment.
- Perform surgery to prepare the mouth for dental implants and to aid in the regeneration of deficient bone and gum tissues.
- Remove tumors and other abnormal growths of the oral and facial regions, using surgical instruments.
- Provide emergency treatment of facial injuries including facial lacerations, intra-oral lacerations, and fractured facial bones.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Complex Problem Solving — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Medicine and Dentistry — importance 5.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Biology — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Finger Dexterity — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Investigative (I), Realistic (R), Social (S).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 5.84 |
| R — Realistic | 5.75 |
| S — Social | 4.47 |
| C — Conventional | 3.60 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.17 |
| A — Artistic | 1.17 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 74.9 |
| ISTP | 71.9 |
| ISFJ | 65.6 |
| INTJ | 64.2 |
| ISFP | 58.8 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, ISTP.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Pediatric Surgeon](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pediatric-surgeon) — median $559,030
- [Orthopedic Surgeon, Except Pediatric](https://nuecareer.com/careers/orthopedic-surgeon) — median $358,550
- [Prosthodontist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/prosthodontist) — median $311,180
- [Dentist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/dentist) — median $170,950
- [Ophthalmologist, Except Pediatric](https://nuecareer.com/careers/ophthalmologist) — median $300,080
- [Dermatologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/dermatologist) — median $328,730
- [Orthodontist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/orthodontist) — median $289,140
- [Urologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/urologist) — median $265,930
- [Podiatrist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/podiatrist) — median $160,300
- [Emergency Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/emergency-medicine-physician) — median $335,550

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/oral-and-maxillofacial-surgeon