Dr. Austin Lyman hosts educational surgery event to demonstrate advanced surgical techniques that benefit his patient and the local medical community.
When he first established Lakewood Ranch Oral and Facial Surgery, Dr. Austin Lyman did so with the desire to provide the community with a practice that includes the most up-to-date, state-of-the-art equipment without making people depend on a corporate dental model. As a part-time faculty member at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine - School of Dental Medicine, he also wanted his practice to be a hub for educational opportunities.
Recently, when a patient consulted Dr. Lyman about the problems she was having with ill-fitting and bothersome dentures, he began to contemplate different options to address her situation in a financially feasible way.
“There is an international epidemic where people don't have necessarily dental insurance to cover big reconstruction cases, and medical insurance isn't covering it either,” he explains. “So people who are low on funds unfortunately continue to suffer with their self-esteem, struggle to maintain good nutrition with their diet and health, and it all compounds.”
As he brainstormed potential solutions, it occurred to Dr. Lyman that this scenario had the potential to serve as an educational moment for the medical and dental communities.
“This level of surgery and dental reconstructive care is not being taught at the dental school, so I thought that this would be an opportunity to help everybody,” he says. “I proposed the idea to the patient, thinking that I could create a continuing education event where doctors would come and learn about this surgery and help educate our community on the level of care that is available.”
Dr. Lyman reached out to the companies he works with and, with their support, created an event to offer the surgery at no cost to the patient while providing an educational opportunity. Over thirty doctors, dental students/residents, ENT, and ER physicians attended the weekend event, which included an academic discussion on the surgery and prosthetic reconstructive care to introduce the attendees to what would be involved in the surgery as well as the surgery itself.
One of the points Dr. Lyman emphasized during the event is that these types of surgeries can be done with minimal anxiety and discomfort for the patient. “We have a culture where people fear the dentist because even in 2025, many dentists try to do surgery by just numbing people versus in medicine, we put people to sleep for their surgeries,” he explains. “We are in a world now with the resources so we can use full anesthesia to put people to sleep, and they don't have to be awake for dental procedures. We can provide patients with rehabilitation and return to a normal quality of life in an anxiety-free environment.”
At the end of the surgery, the patient had a new, beautiful smile and the community gained valuable insight into the benefits, importance, and advancements of oral surgery.
“Dentists play an important role, but they are not surgeons. Just like you wouldn’t go to your primary care physician for knee replacement, you shouldn’t look to your dentist for dental surgery,” he shares. “An oral and maxillofacial surgeon is the same as other surgeons, like orthopedic and cardiothoracic surgeons, because we trained in a hospital for general surgery. Some dentists offer sedation, but it isn’t necessarily safer, nor does it guarantee the anxiety and pain relief you would get with a maxillofacial surgeon who's also trained as an anesthesiologist.”
Dr. Lyman, encouraged by the event’s success for both the patient and community, looks forward to hosting additional educational events. For more information and to explore the possibilities of oral and maxillofacial surgery, visit www.lakewoodranchofs.com.