American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons

American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons was founded in 1918 by 29 dentists, specialized in extracting teeth. In 1919, the organization was initially named American Society of Exodontists, and was formally recognized by American Dental Association. In 1921, the organization changed its named from American Society of Exodontists to the American Society of Oral Surgeons and Exodontists. During WWI, US did not have Dental Corps yet because of which lot of dentists volunteered for surgery with their medical colleagues. Lot of oral surgeons in the earlier part of 20th century had their medical degrees which allowed them to work with facial trauma in the WWI. Some of the early dentists who progressed the specialty in many different ways were Varaztad Kazanjian, Robert H. Ivy, Carl W. Waldron, Simon Hullihen and James Garretson are also known for their significant contributions to the field of oral surgery.

AAOMS created the Board of the American Society of Oral Surgeons in 1946. The name of this board was then changed to American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (ABOMS) in 1978. The specialty then changed its named to American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) from American Society of Oral Surgeons and Exodontists in 1978.

AAOMS also played a key role in creating the first American edition of Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in 1943. AAOMS created this journal with help of ADA. The journal was first called Journal of Oral Surgery. This journal was purchased by AAOMS from ADA IN 1981 to gain more control. Another journal called Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, and Oral Radiology also has been publishing articles related to oral surgery since 1948.