In short
Check that the surgeon holds an MDS in oral and maxillofacial surgery, verify their State Dental Council registration, ask how often they perform your specific procedure, confirm what imaging will be used for planning, and ask what happens if a complication occurs and who manages it.
The short version
- Directory rankings reflect advertising spend and listing age, not surgical outcomes.
- Verify the MDS specialty and registration number — both are checkable and freely given by specialists.
- Ask who manages a complication if one occurs: continuity matters more than any single credential.
Search for a maxillofacial surgeon in Lucknow and what comes back is mostly directories — Practo, JustDial, hospital pages, aggregator listicles titled “best” something. Very little of it tells you anything about surgical quality, because none of those platforms measure it.
Here is what is actually worth checking.
Why the listings do not answer the question
Aggregator rankings are driven by paid placement, profile completeness, response rate and how long a listing has existed. A surgeon who does not pay for promotion and does not manage their directory profile can be excellent and effectively invisible on those pages.
Reviews help a little, but they mostly reflect waiting time, staff manner and cost — all genuinely useful, none of them a measure of whether a jaw fracture was reduced accurately or an implant was placed in the right position. Patients are not in a position to judge that, which is not a criticism of patients.
So use the listings to find out who exists nearby, then assess separately.
Verify the qualification, specifically
The title “dental surgeon” indicates a BDS, which every registered dentist holds. The specialist qualification is MDS in oral and maxillofacial surgery: three years of hospital surgical residency after the dental degree.
Ask three things. Which degree — BDS, or BDS with MDS? If MDS, in which specialty, since MDS also exists in orthodontics, periodontics, prosthodontics and other fields that are not surgical. And which institution and year.
Then ask for the State Dental Council registration number. This is checkable, and a specialist will give it without hesitation. Reluctance is itself informative.
Ask about volume, not just credentials
A qualification establishes training. Current practice establishes competence.
The useful question is how often the surgeon performs your particular procedure. Impacted third molars are routine for most maxillofacial surgeons. Orthognathic surgery, free flap reconstruction and TMJ surgery are not, and are concentrated in fewer hands.
A straight answer — “several a week”, or “a few a year, and for that I would refer you to” — tells you more than any certificate on the wall. A surgeon who refers something onward is demonstrating judgement, not inadequacy.
Ask how the case will be planned
Good surgery is mostly good planning, and this is where corners get cut invisibly.
What imaging will be used, and why that one? A flat panoramic film is adequate for many cases and inadequate for others — implants near the nerve, impacted teeth against the inferior alveolar canal, midface fractures, jaw deformity. If a CBCT or CT is not being used for a case that warrants it, ask why.
You should also be told what the specific risks are for your case, in your anatomy, rather than a generic list. “Nerve damage is possible” is a disclaimer. “Your root sits directly on the canal, so here is what that means and here is the alternative” is a plan.
Ask what happens when something goes wrong
This is the question patients least like asking and most need to.
If bleeding does not settle at eleven at night, who do you call? If an implant fails to integrate at four months, what happens and at whose cost? If a graft becomes infected, is it managed here or referred? If the extraction turns out to be more complex than expected once started, does it continue or stop?
Continuity is the practical thing patients value most in hindsight. Being referred onward partway through treatment, with a gap of weeks and a new set of consultations, is the commonest avoidable frustration in surgical dentistry.
Hospital department or private clinic?
Both have a place. Lucknow has strong institutional departments at KGMU and SGPGIMS, which are the right setting for major reconstruction, polytrauma, cancer resection and anything needing multidisciplinary care or intensive support.
Private specialist practice generally suits day-case surgery — impacted teeth, implants, biopsies, cyst removal, TMJ management — where shorter waiting, continuity with one surgeon and straightforward follow-up matter more than institutional infrastructure.
Matching the setting to the case is more useful than deciding one is categorically better.
What a good consultation feels like
You were examined before anything was quoted. The diagnosis was explained in language you understood. More than one option was described, including doing nothing for now where that was legitimate. Risks were specific to you. Costs were written down, in full, before treatment. You did not feel hurried, and you were not asked to decide the same day for a discount.
If a consultation produced none of that, the price is not the thing to compare.
At Elegancia, oral and maxillofacial surgery is carried out by Dr. Tasveer Fatima — BDS, MDS (Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery), FICOI (USA), AOMSI life member — whose training included senior residency at the KGMU and SGPGIMS trauma centres. Consultations are available at Khurram Nagar and Bakshi Ka Talab, and you are welcome to bring a plan from elsewhere for a second opinion.
Frequently asked questions
Ask for the institution and year of the MDS and the State Dental Council registration number. Registration can be checked against the relevant State Dental Council register. Membership of the Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons of India carries a membership number that can also be quoted and checked.
Treat them as directories, not rankings. Most are aggregator sites where placement reflects paid listings, profile completeness and listing age rather than any assessment of clinical outcomes. They are useful for finding who exists in your area, and not useful for deciding who is good.
Hospital departments are better suited to major reconstruction, complex trauma and cases needing multidisciplinary input or intensive care. Private specialist clinics generally offer shorter waits, continuity with one surgeon and easier follow-up for day-case surgery. The right answer depends on the complexity of your case.
Entirely. For any elective surgical procedure, a second opinion is normal practice and no competent surgeon takes offence. Bring your X-rays and the existing plan so the second clinician is assessing the same information. A good second opinion sometimes confirms the first plan, which is a useful result in itself.
Worried about any of this?
An article cannot examine your mouth. Call and describe the problem — we will tell you honestly whether you need to be seen urgently or whether it can wait.