Public recognition of specialty designations.

PURPOSE Although there is no supporting evidence, there is a perception that the public is unfamiliar with what an oral and maxillofacial surgeon does. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the knowledge of persons about the type of treatment rendered by 12 different specialties and to determine if such unfamiliarity is true only for oral and maxillofacial surgery or whether it occurs with other specialties. PATIENTS AND METHODS Two groups of patients, one in a dental setting (n = 101) and one in a general medical office setting (n = 157), were asked to match a list of 12 different specialists with list of 15 brief treatment options. Data related to level of education, gender, and age were also collected. Logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between correct identification of individual specialties and the demographic variables. RESULTS Subjects in both settings correctly matched an average of 72% of the specialists. The most commonly identified specialist in both groups was the gastroenterologist (90%), and the least recognized was the nephrologist in the dental setting (44%), and the otolaryngologist in the medical setting (53%). The oral and maxillofacial surgeon had an identification rate of 77%. Older and better-educated respondents correctly recognized the greatest number of specialists. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study show that name recognition is not a problem faced only by oral and maxillofacial surgeons. It also shows that efforts directed at improving this situation should be aimed at the younger and less-educated population.