In December 2011, a young model and blogger named Lauren Scruggs got off a small plane in Texas and accidentally walked into its moving propeller. The horrific trauma resulted in brain damage, as well as the loss of her left hand and eye. But in pictures taken just weeks after the accident, the young woman was photographed looking remarkably whole. Her extraordinary recovery was due in part, no doubt, to the talents of a skilled oral and maxillofacial surgeon (OMS) based in Dallas. An oral surgeon is often thought of as a highly specialized dentist, but that’s a far from adequate characterization of this skilled profession, which typically requires anywhere from 8 to 15 years of postgraduate study. Oral surgeons do perform many procedures related to dental problems, including extractions, implants, and jaw realignment. But they also perform reconstructions for victims of facial trauma like Lauren Scruggs. Whereas once these kinds of injuries might have proved fatal, advances in facial reconstruction have made remarkable recoveries like Lauren’s much more common. Technology has played a significant role in the development of facial surgery, as OMS specialists are now able to plan their procedures in a level of detail that was never before possible through the use of 3-D imaging. Bone and skin grafts allow surgeons to rebuild the structure of the face and minimize scarring from cuts and lacerations. Oral surgeons have a particular role in repairing damage caused by injury to the upper and lower jaw; 3-D imaging has proved enormously beneficial in this area, as well. In the past, jaw fractures and other injuries could only be treated by affixing rigid plates to the skull or by wiring the jaw in place, but Dallas specialists performing jaw reconstruction now have a variety of...