Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery House Surgeons 2026
Oral Maxillofacial Surgery House Surgeons 2026 - Waikato Hospital
Full Time, Fixed Term
Waikato Hospital in Hamilton is a Level-1 trauma centre and one of New Zealand's largest tertiary teaching hospitals with over 600 inpatient beds and 22 operating theatres. The Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMS) provides a tertiary service to the Central North Island, serving a catchment population of approximately one million as part of Te Whatu Ora's Te Manawa Taki region.
We require OMS House Surgeons to join our team. You will be working as part of a team of four House Surgeons (3 dentally qualified and 1 medically qualified). Our department has a strong emphasis on clinical teaching and opportunities for our house surgeons to grow their clinical skills in clinics, theatres, on-call opportunities, and courses through a ‘hands-on' approach.We will assist with developing your oral surgery skills to build a solid foundation to safely conduct surgical extractions, biopsies and perfect your suturing of the oral cavity and face, and other minor OMS procedures that will be relevant to dental practice, or a future in post- graduate training and beyond.
We will support you to develop your ability to deal with medically complex patients in both inpatient and outpatient settings.
As early career dentists, we understand that progression and upskilling are important. Within the OMS department this is greatly encouraged. We support our house surgeons to work on research for presentation at the hospital dental conference, OMS conferences and for academic publication.We also support our house surgeons in completing their RACDS primary examinations. For those who find themselves with an interest in OMS, there are opportunities for you to apply for Senior House Surgeon and OMS Registrar positions as well as support for your medical degree applications as part of your future career progression.
Financial support for sitting RACDS Primary Exams, IV Sedation courses, and presentation conferences is available for house surgeons contributing to the department.
All aspects of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery are seen and treated in the department, with an emphasis on:
- Management of both dental and facial trauma
- Dentoalveolar Surgery * Third molar extractions
- Removal of impacted and supernumerary teeth
- Exposure and bonding of impacted teeth
- Dental and craniofacial implant placement for oncology patients
- Management of benign pathology
- Dentofacial deformity correction surgery
- TMJ surgery including arthroscopy and total joint replacement
Unique to the Waikato Hospital is the management of head and neck oncology cases. We are the only OMS unit in the country that conducts its own microvascular free flap reconstruction which provides excellent teaching opportunities for house surgeons. This includes:
- Comprehensive work-up of a patient diagnosed with oral cancer
- Management of oral cancer patients in context of a head and neck Multidisciplinary team
- Biopsy of suspicious oral lesions
- Peri-operative management of oncology and microvascular free flap reconstruction patients
- Routine oncological surveillance of cancer patients
The unit's acute work is varied, but in addition to the above, it includes the management of facial infections, ward inpatients, and ED presentations. There is excellent senior support and 3 Registrars to assist our House Surgeon team to allow for adequate supervision and teaching.
We have a strong emphasis on teaching, clinical governance and research. There are weekly teaching sessions (1-2 hours) that involves:
- Radiology meeting and teaching on x-ray interpretation
- Case based pathology teaching from a clinical pathologist on patients treated within the unit including review of pathology specimens and slides
- Morbidity and mortality meetings
- Trauma meeting with discussion on surgical approaches and patient management
- Maxillofacial and dental teaching topics given by consultants, registrars and house surgeons on a rotational basis
- Complex case discussions
- Guest lecturers
- Multidisciplinary meetings with other specialities
You will also work alongside registered specialists in Paediatric, Orthodontic, Prosthodontic and Special Care Dentistry who provides dental care to patients with medical complexity and/or disability. The department also includes three Maxillofacial Technicians which provide support for our house surgeons along with teaching.
Outpatient clinics are held daily, with regular theatre sessions rostered for surgical exposure and teaching (e.g. suturing, extractions of teeth). Minor operating procedures (MOPS) clinics are run regularly to reinforce house surgeon and registrar surgical skills under LA.
House Surgeons will be embedded within