Present and future patterns of practice and workforce needs in oral and maxillofacial surgery.

Oral and maxillofacial surgeons have shown curiosity and concern for their present and future patterns of practice and workforce needs. Few oral and maxillofacial surgeons would not have an understanding of how they came to be, or opinions on where the specialty is and appears to be going. Such opinions, however, need to be rigorously tested against the best available information. Quantitative information is the substantive input to decisions on whether oral and maxillofacial surgeons wish to go where they appear to be going, and if so why, and if not, why not? The Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons 1990 Workforce Study* aimed to provide information relevant to these questions. Oral and maxillofacial surgeons are surprising in both their heterogeneity in patterns of practice and homogeneity in most of the content of services provided. Projections of the workforce indicate that a status quo in recruitment is actually a steady decline in capacity to serve the community, a picture in contrast to the international comparative data and opinion that supports a broadening in the service role of oral and maxillofacial surgeons. The Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons 1990 Workforce Study offers insights into present and future patterns of practice and workforce needs. Ultimately, however, decision-making in the specialty will reflect additional social, economic and dento-political factors to which the Australian and New Zealand Association of Oral and Maxillo-Facial Surgeons must be the major contributor.