Oral & Maxillofacial Q&A: Mr Aakshay Gulati

Q1. What does an Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon do? 

Oral and maxillofacial surgery is a unique specialty where the surgeon is dually qualified in both medicine and dentistry, so is in a good position to treat conditions affecting the mouth, face, jaws, and neck area. So these could range from simple lesions in the mouth, lumps or bumps in the mouth to lumps and bumps on the skin, salivary glands, neck, complex teeth impacted teeth within the jaw, jaw deformity, cleft lip and palate, and ranging all the way to head and neck cancer and microvascular reconstruction, which is also an area of specialty of mine. 

Q2. What are the most common reasons patients come to see me? 

At The McIndoe Centre, I commonly get patients referred to me with regards to lesions in the mouth. These could be red or white patches, ulcers, lumps, or bumps that haven't resolved. These often need a biopsy to confirm their diagnosis and thankfully majority of these are indeed benign. Should this not be the case however, appropriate investigations can then be recommended and further treatment planned from then on.  

I also see a lot of patients who suffer from facial pain, which affects their quality of life. And this could often be arising from the jaw joint or the temporomandibular joint related to muscle spasm or jaw joint pathology.  

One of the most common procedures done across the country is indeed removal of impacted wisdom teeth. These are teeth that haven't come through in the jaw in the correct place and cause problems by either damaging the teeth around them or causing recurrent infections.  

I also perform complex dental implants within the hospital setting here at The McIndoe Centre. 

Q3. Why choose The McIndoe Centre for your dental implant? 

At The McIndoe Centre, we are very well placed to provide a comprehensive dental implant service. I have over 20 years experience and work alongside my restorative dentistry colleague in a multidisciplinary setting where all the patients get assessed jointly for their treatment planning. My expertise includes complex bone grafting, sinus lifts, and full mouth dental implant rehabilitation, which is guided by digital implant and surgical planning. The ultimate aim is to provide a functional aesthetic rehabilitation of the mouth for my patients.  

The additional advantage we have in The McIndoe Centre is that we are able to offer the same treatment to anxious patients who would normally not be able to have the treatment under local anaesthesia. We can offer the treatment for these patients in theatres with the support of a consultant anaesthetist with intravenous sedation or a general anaesthetic if the need arises.