Division of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Patient Consult Protocol
1. Introduction
The majority of undergraduate oral surgery patients come from the CCD clinics. The Division of
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery has no access to these patients and, as such, it is important that
the third and fourth year dental students expedite all oral surgery consults, otherwise the oral
surgery clinics will not be full. This in turn reduces the student’s experience in the surgery clinic.
All School of Dentistry patients who are being treatment planned for an oral surgery
procedure(s), with the exception of some emergent or urgent procedures, must have a completed
consult request and treatment plan in their AXIUM chart before they can be booked in the oral
surgery clinic. Those patients deemed too difficult or medically complex for the undergraduate
clinic will be referred to either the General Practice Residency Program or private practice. This
determination will be made by the oral surgeon & maxillofacial surgeon completing the consult.
In the interests of focused patient care and timely student accommodation the Division of Oral
and Maxillofacial Surgery will endeavor to complete all consults within 48 hours of the consult
request.
2. Arranging a Consult Time
Either Dr. Stevenson or Dr. Talwar is available for consults in the oral & maxillofacial surgery
clinic Tuesday morning and afternoon and Wednesday afternoon. We will also do consult rounds
on the clinic floor most Monday’s & Wednesday’s from 11am – 12:30pm. Should these times
not be convenient, we can also be contacted by email or text messaging to set up an appointment
in our offices in ECHA. As stated above, it is important to us that all consults be expedited in a
timely fashion (the goal being 48 hours) and if you do not hear back from the oral surgeon within
48 hours, do not hesitate to send a second message.
3. Pre-consult Checklist
Prior to the consultation the following must be completed in the patient’s AXIUM chart:
a. The surgical procedure(s) must be listed in the treatment plan and the treatment plan
signed off by your CCD leader.
b. The patient’s past medical history, medication list & vital signs have been recently
reviewed and updated.
c. An oral surgery consult request must be listed in AXIUM.
d. The consult request must be marked complete by the consulting student.
4. Student Preparation
The consult process is not only to assess the suitability of a patient’s treatment for the
undergraduate and general practice residency oral surgery clinic, but is also a learning
opportunity for the student. For this reason the consulting student is expected to be familiar with
their patient and be prepared to discuss the following with the consultant oral surgeon*:
a. ASA Classification.
b. Past medical history (PMH).
c. Social history.
d. Significant findings from the review of systems (ROS).
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e. Medications, their use, side effects and drug to drug interactions.
f. Proposed surgery, indications, benefits and possible complications.
g. Treatment options.
*For email consults please provide a brief description about your patient and their ASA
classification.
5. Special Cases
For cases involving ridge reduction, tori removal or tuberosity reduction the student should have
casts available that have been marked to indicate the areas where surgery is required.
6. Undergraduate Patient Booking
Following completion of the consult the student should send an Axium message to notify Brenda
Duval and put a request in Axium that a patient is ready to be scheduled for surgery (in these
instances the surgery booking will be made after the prosthesis is ready for insertion). An
exception to the patient booking protocol will be cases where the prosthesis is yet to be
constructed or emergent/ urgent cases that Brenda Duval has pre-booked for the surgery clinic
pending completion of the oral surgery consultation.
7. General Practice Resident Booking
For all oral surgery consult patients directed to the general practice residency clinic surgery clinic
the student should notify their CCD leader.
8. Patients Referred to Private Practice
For those patients who are referred to private practice the student is expected to complete a
referral to the oral & maxillofacial surgery office (if a particular office has been chosen) or an
open referral if the patient is choosing an office. The student should contact their CCD Leader to
initiate the referral. While the consulted oral surgeon will be available assist the student, the
referring student will be responsible for the transfer of any records or imaging to the referral
office.
9. Medical Consults
Patient requiring medical consults should have this done through your CCD leader.
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