Member Spotlight
Dr. Dan Oreadi joined the
ACOMS Board of Regents
this past April. He is an
Assistant Professor at Tufts
Medical Center and has been
a member of ACOMS since
2009.
Venezuela, and coming
from a family of dentists (my
father being a periodontist
and my grandfather a
prosthodontist), I was
deeply involved in the field.
However, once I decided to
come to the United States
When did you first join
to pursue training in oral
ACOMS and how did you
and maxillofacial surgery, I
become more involved in
realized that it wasn’t an easy
leadership roles for the
task. I was fortunate to meet
college?
people along the way and
I joined ACOMS first as a
was offered the opportunity
resident, and then once I
to do an internship at Boston
completed my training, I
Medical Center, where I
decided to stay as a member. learned from great surgeons,
After a couple of years, I was
who I still maintain great
offered the opportunity to
relationships with. Later on, I
take a role in the Membership was accepted into my second
Committee, and more
internship at Tufts University
recently, had the privilege to
and was eventually offered
be elected to the Board of
the position as a resident
Regents for Region I.
to complete the four-year
training.
How did you decide
to become an oral and
What advice do you have
maxillofacial surgeon?
for dental students and
I developed an early interest
residents who are just
during dental school and
embarking on their career?
before I obtained my
My main advice is for
undergraduate degree, I had
students to learn about
already realized that oral and the many options offered
maxillofacial surgery was
through the career of
deeply ingrained in my mind. dentistry. Getting involved
There was nothing else I
with the different specialties
could see myself doing.
and learning from them
will allow the student to
What were some of the
make a clear decision about
challenges you faced along further training. Once they
your educational career/
develop a passion for oral
journey?
and maxillofacial surgery, I
I completed my dental
encourage those students
education in Caracas,
to spend time in the OMS
departments, learn from
the residents and faculty,
and work hard in order to
get accepted to a residency
position.
For the current residents, my
advice is to enjoy residency
and its many subspecialties,
regardless of their post-
training goals. OMS is
constantly changing, so
keeping up-to-date with new
technologies is always a must.
I will also encourage them
to stay involved whether it
is through their residency
program, or through local
and national societies, so that
our specialty remains strong.
I still believe there is a lot of
work for us to do in proving
the societal benefit of oral
and maxillofacial surgery. It
is only possible as long as
we continue to train great
generations of surgeons year
after year.