Each resident accepted to the six-year track must have taken the Comprehensive Basic Sciences Exam (CBSE) and achieved a score of 72 or higher. Advanced standing in the LSU Health Shreveport School of Medicine requires successful completion of Step I of the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) before matriculation. Residents within this track will now enroll in the LSU Health Shreveport School of Medicine during their first year as acting Third Year Medical Students. The resident then completes the fourth year of the medical school curriculum during which 9 months of electives will be spent on OMFS and 3 months will be spent learning physical exam techniques, nutrition, and an acting internship in the MICU.

Upon graduation from medical school, the residents will spend one year as a general surgery intern, which is divided into 6 months of General Surgery rotations (divided between Burn Unit, Surgical Intensive Care Unit, General Surgery, Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, Surgical Oncology, and Trauma), 5 months of Anesthesia rotations, and 1 month back on OMFS. At the completion of this year of General Surgery, the residents return to the Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery service for 36 months to complete their training as senior and chief residents. The USMLE Steps II and III are completed during their last year of medical school and their first year of post-graduate medical training, respectively.

Throughout the course of the residency program, the residents will spend time at our various hospital affiliates including the Academic Medical Center at Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport (including the LSU Children’s Hospital), the Ambulatory Care Center, the Feist-Weiller Cancer Center, the Christus-Schumpert Hospital System, Rapides Regional Medical Center, Monroe Medical Center at Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport, and the Overton Brooks Veterans Administration Hospital. 

The goal of the Advanced Education Program in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery at LSU Health Shreveport is ultimately board certification of its graduates. Each resident, once matriculated from the program, is monitored for their performance on the certification examinations of the American Board of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery and the program director contacts each individual to discuss the programs adequacy in preparation for this exam.