Hello,
The big names that are always posted and appear to be the most recommended are Gunson and Arnett. They are located in Ca and they do not take insurance. They seem to do quite a lot of reconstruction too after someone has botched up a surgery.
I totally agree that's it challenging to find names of well-regarded oral surgeons. The other challenge is the fact that many do not take insurance and this is a ~100K procedure if done out of pocket. I know I found my doc eventually through real self and I would
NOT recommend using this site as a means for finding a provider.
Picking the right provider and the right hospital is so important and I would strongly recommend obtaining at least 3 consultations. Yes you will have to pay for a consult but you can get a feel for their process and find out the number of cases they do and common complications they see. Also; quite a few of the surgeons now offer computer imaging to show how you might look after. My surgeon performed the drawings by hand and if I was placing bets, I would say he drew up the sketch an hour before the procedure.
Look for red flags and heed them. Review hospital scores with CMS and avoid low scoring hospitals as this is a pretty intense surgery where you want someone who can recognize and resolve any emergent issues quickly. Also consider looking at jaw surgery blogs from folks who've posted timelines and recommendations. One that I used and was quite helpful with post-op recommendations was Kelly's jaw surgery blog (
http://kellysjawsurgery.blogspot.com/) ; however there are numerous ones out there. Google jaw surgery or MMA surgery blogs.
Good Luck! It's a long and challenging road.
Karla
