When an international patient chooses Istanbul for a complex oral surgical procedure, the most consequential question they can ask is not about price or technology but about the qualifications of the surgeon performing the operation. Credentials issued by professional bodies that enforce rigorous academic and clinical standards are the most reliable indicators of genuine surgical expertise. At International Plus, our oral surgery team includes Dr. Emre Çolak (Member No: 506) and Dr. Alper Çağlayan Sarraf, both holding active membership within the Turkish Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Association (TAOMS), one of the longest-standing and most authoritative surgical bodies in Turkish dentistry. This institutional affiliation is not a formality. It is the professional foundation upon which every surgical decision made at International Plus is built.
What is the TAOMS (Turkish Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Association) Certificate?
TAOMS certification formally establishes that a practitioner has completed the full academic and clinical pathway required for recognition as a specialist in Turkish Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. Founded in 1985 and officially recognised by the Republic of Turkey Council of Ministers, TAOMS functions as the primary national authority for the discipline of oral and maxillofacial surgery within Turkey’s healthcare system.
Membership within TAOMS is not accessible to general dental practitioners. It is reserved exclusively for surgeons who hold a formal postgraduate qualification in oral and maxillofacial surgery, confirmed either through a university-based specialisation programme or through an accredited doctoral research pathway in the discipline. For a patient seeking surgical accreditation Turkey, a confirmed TAOMS membership number is the clearest verifiable proof that their surgeon has met the country’s highest academic and professional requirements in this field.
Dr. Emre Çolak, Head of Complex Surgical Procedures at International Plus, completed his doctoral degree in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Gazi University, one of Turkey’s most prestigious dental faculties, and holds TAOMS membership under the official registry. Dr. Alper Çağlayan Sarraf similarly brings a doctoral-level academic background and active participation in the association’s scientific activities. Their TAOMS membership means that every procedure they perform is governed not only by their individual clinical judgement but by the formal ethical and technical standards that the association upholds on a national level.
The Significance of National Surgical Accreditation in Turkey
Patients who travel internationally for surgical dental care enter a system of healthcare governance that may differ substantially from what they know at home. Understanding how trusted surgeons Turkey are regulated is therefore essential for making an informed decision.
Turkey’s dental profession is supervised by the Turkish Dental Association (TDB), which governs general dental practice across all registered practitioners. TAOMS operates as a specialist layer above this general framework, setting the standards that apply specifically to oral and maxillofacial surgery as a recognised branch of dentistry under Turkish law. A surgeon operating under TAOMS oversight commits to a defined code of ethics, participates in ongoing scientific education and accepts peer review as a structural condition of their professional membership.
The practical significance for an international patient is considerable. Dental surgery regulations enforced through TAOMS membership mean that your surgeon’s qualifications have been validated not merely by the clinic that employs them but by an independent academic body with decades of institutional history. Turkish dental excellence at the surgical level is therefore accountable to standards that extend well beyond any individual clinic’s marketing claims. Choosing a TAOMS-affiliated surgeon is choosing a professional who answers to a recognised national authority.
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Advanced Oral and Maxillofacial Surgical Standards
The protocols that TAOMS defines for its member surgeons directly shape the operational discipline observed at International Plus across all surgical procedures. These standards govern far more than the surgical technique itself. They establish expectations for pre-operative assessment, sterile field management, anaesthesia coordination, intraoperative complication recognition and post-operative monitoring.
Oral surgery protocols under TAOMS guidelines begin with a comprehensive diagnostic phase. At International Plus, this phase is structured through our Diagnostic Council, a multidisciplinary team comprising our lead surgeons, a prosthodontics specialist and an aesthetic dentistry consultant who jointly evaluate each case before any intervention is planned. This council reviews the patient’s full radiographic record, including 2D panoramic imaging and 3D CBCT tomography, to map the precise anatomical landscape of the jaw, sinus cavities and nerve pathways before any incision is considered.
Maxillofacial treatment standards under TAOMS also require that surgical planning documentation be retained and that all material selections, implant system choices and procedural modifications be justified in the clinical record. The surgical safety culture this creates at International Plus means that no procedure moves forward without documented pre-operative consensus. This approach eliminates the improvisation that increases complication risk and ensures that the care pathway is transparent and reproducible at every stage.
Why TAOMS Standards Matter for Complex Dental Procedures
The value of TAOMS-regulated expertise becomes most apparent in cases that extend beyond straightforward tooth extraction or routine implant placement. Patients presenting with severe bone atrophy, existing jaw cysts, temporomandibular joint disorders or the need for corrective jaw surgery are navigating a significantly more demanding clinical landscape.
Complex dental implants placed in compromised bone require a surgeon who can precisely calculate the volume and quality of available bone, select the appropriate augmentation technique and manage the biological healing environment across multiple phases. Bone augmentation Turkey procedures performed at International Plus by our TAOMS-affiliated surgeons include guided bone regeneration, ridge splitting, onlay bone grafting and, where the upper posterior jaw is involved, lateral window sinus augmentation using piezoelectric surgical instruments.
Clinical evidence strongly supports the effectiveness of these augmentation techniques when executed by qualified specialists. A retrospective analysis with a 6-year mean follow-up published in PubMed demonstrated that implants placed in augmented bone achieved comparable cumulative success and survival rates to implants placed in native bone, provided that the augmentation procedure was performed according to established surgical protocols (PubMed: 40037311). A further longitudinal study of 633 implants placed within autologous intraoral block onlay bone graft augmentations found a 96.4% success rate with up to 137 months of follow-up, confirming that expert surgical execution remains the primary determinant of outcome in augmented cases (PubMed: 25535883).
The margin for error in these complex cases is narrow, and TAOMS-level training is precisely the factor that minimises it.
The Role of Maxillofacial Surgery in Full Mouth Reconstruction
Full mouth rehabilitation is one of the most comprehensive treatment pathways in modern dentistry, involving the simultaneous or sequential restoration of all existing teeth alongside surgical interventions that may include extraction, bone augmentation, implant placement and aesthetic soft tissue management. The success of such a rehabilitation depends not only on the quality of individual procedures but on the coherence of the overall surgical and prosthetic plan.
At International Plus, TAOMS-affiliated surgeons contribute to full mouth rehabilitation by ensuring that the surgical foundation of each case is designed to support optimal prosthetic outcomes. Jaw alignment is evaluated in three dimensions before any surgical plan is finalised, using our METISMILE digital design software and TRIOS 5 intraoral scanning technology to model both the current and the intended final occlusal relationship. Aesthetic surgical balance between the jaw structure, the gum architecture and the eventual prosthetic teeth is considered from the first consultation rather than addressed retrospectively after surgical work is completed.
Research published in PubMed confirms that multidisciplinary case management in complex rehabilitation significantly improves both functional and aesthetic outcomes, with coordinated surgical and prosthetic planning identified as the most important structural variable in achieving long-term stability (PMC10971234). TAOMS standards, which require ongoing scientific education and familiarity with current evidence, ensure that International Plus surgeons apply this multidisciplinary philosophy consistently across all reconstruction cases.
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Bridging Traditional Expertise with Modern Surgical Innovation
One of the defining characteristics of International Plus surgery is the integration of deep clinical experience with the capabilities of a fully digital surgical workflow. TAOMS membership is a certification of clinical expertise grounded in decades of evidence-based practice. Our digital infrastructure translates that expertise into reproducible precision at every stage of treatment.
Modern oral surgery at International Plus begins with 3D CBCT tomography that maps every cubic millimetre of the relevant anatomy before the patient enters the surgical suite. This imaging data is used to generate virtual surgical guides that allow implants to be positioned with sub-millimetre accuracy relative to the nerve canal, sinus floor and adjacent tooth roots. Where conventional freehand placement introduces variability, guided placement eliminates it.
Innovative dental techniques employed by our TAOMS surgeons include the use of PRF (Platelet-Rich Fibrin) derived from the patient’s own blood, which is processed chairside and applied at the surgical site to accelerate soft tissue healing, reduce post-operative inflammation and support bone regeneration. Piezoelectric surgical instruments are used for all sinus floor elevation procedures, allowing the membrane to be mobilised without the tearing risk associated with rotary instruments. These are not aspirational technologies. They are standard components of the International Plus surgical protocol for every qualifying case.
Patient Safety and Ethical Surgical Protocols in Turkey
Ethical dentistry Turkey is a principle that carries specific meaning within the TAOMS framework. The association’s code of ethics requires that member surgeons provide treatment planning that is biologically conservative, that they avoid recommending procedures for which there is no clear clinical indication and that they maintain full transparency with patients regarding the risks, alternatives and realistic expectations associated with any proposed intervention.
Patient rights in TAOMS-regulated practice include the right to a written treatment plan, the right to a second opinion without any obligation to proceed and the right to full disclosure of the surgeon’s qualifications and the evidence base for recommended procedures. At International Plus, these principles are embedded in every consultation. Our surgeons do not recommend extraction where preservation is possible, do not propose augmentation where existing bone is adequate and do not present any procedure as risk-free when clinical judgement requires a more nuanced discussion.
Safe oral surgery Istanbul under TAOMS protocols also means that infection control, sterilisation and instrument management meet the standards set by both the Turkish Ministry of Health and the European Association for Cranio-Maxillo-Facial Surgery (EACMFS), of which our surgical team holds active membership. Patients can request documentation of sterilisation protocols, implant system certifications and material safety data at any point during their care at International Plus.
Continuous Professional Growth within the Turkish Surgical Community
TAOMS scientific congresses are held regularly and attract oral and maxillofacial surgeons from across Turkey and the international academic community. These events serve as the primary venue through which emerging evidence, updated technique protocols and new material standards are disseminated to practising surgeons within the association’s membership.
Continuous surgical education within TAOMS is not optional for active members. The association maintains expectations of participation in scientific activities as a condition of retained membership, which means that patients treated by TAOMS surgeons at International Plus can be confident that their care is informed by current evidence rather than outdated practice. Dr. Emre Çolak’s academic record reflects this commitment directly: he has presented at national congresses including the Turkish OMS 15th and 16th International Congresses and has completed advanced international training in temporomandibular joint surgery at UMCG in the Netherlands under EACMFS certification.
Expert dental training of this calibre translates into demonstrably better surgical judgement in complex cases, particularly in scenarios where intraoperative findings require immediate adaptation of the surgical plan. The surgeon who has encountered a wide range of complication profiles in a rigorous academic and clinical environment is substantially better equipped to navigate unexpected findings than one whose experience is limited to straightforward routine cases.
Choosing a Certified Maxillofacial Surgeon for Your Treatment
The distinction between a general dentist and a maxillofacial surgeon is significant and is frequently misunderstood by patients seeking surgical dental care. A general dentist completes a standard undergraduate dental degree, which provides foundational exposure to oral anatomy and basic surgical procedures including simple extractions. An oral and maxillofacial surgeon completes this same degree and then undertakes years of additional postgraduate specialisation in surgical diagnosis, complex extractions, bone surgery, jaw reconstruction, implantology in compromised anatomy, pathology management and, in many cases, elements of facial trauma repair.
Choosing between a dentist Turkey and a TAOMS-certified oral surgeon is therefore not a matter of preference but of clinical appropriateness. For straightforward restorative work, a skilled general dentist is entirely qualified. For procedures involving bone grafting, jaw cyst removal, zygomatic implantation, sinus augmentation or corrective jaw surgery, TAOMS certification is the standard you should insist upon.
The best oral surgeons in Istanbul are those whose credentials are independently verifiable, whose academic training is documented and whose clinical protocols can withstand scrutiny. At International Plus, we encourage every patient to request the professional membership numbers of their treating surgeon and to verify those numbers directly through the TAOMS registry at taoms.org.tr before proceeding with any surgical care.
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Experience Specialized Surgical Care at International Plus
International Plus is a premium surgical clinic Turkey where academic rigour, advanced technology and a genuinely patient-centred approach converge in a single clinical environment. Our TAOMS-affiliated surgeons bring doctoral-level expertise and active international memberships, including ITI (International Team for Implantology) and EAO (European Association for Osseointegration), to a facility equipped with the full range of digital planning, intraoral scanning and in-house laboratory fabrication capabilities.
Specialized oral care at International Plus begins before your flight lands. Our international patient team coordinates your pre-operative consultation remotely, ensures that all diagnostic imaging is reviewed by the Diagnostic Council before your arrival and prepares a personalised treatment plan that is presented to you on your first day at the clinic. During your stay in Istanbul, our VIP services include private transfer, accommodation coordination and a dedicated patient liaison who accompanies you throughout your surgical journey.
Our International Plus standards reflect more than a commitment to premium patient experience. They reflect the conviction that every patient, regardless of the complexity of their case, deserves the combined assurance of nationally certified surgical expertise, internationally recognised accreditation and a clinical environment where their safety and informed consent are never treated as secondary considerations.
If you are planning a complex oral surgical procedure and want the confidence that comes from working with TAOMS-certified surgeons at a fully accredited, internationally recognised facility, we invite you to take the first step.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the importance of TAOMS certification for international patients?
TAOMS certification ensures that your surgeon is officially recognised and specialised by the primary national body governing oral and maxillofacial surgery in Turkey. This means they adhere to defined international safety standards, a formal code of ethics and ongoing scientific education requirements. For an international patient who cannot rely on local word-of-mouth recommendations, this independently verifiable credential is the most reliable quality assurance available.
Is a Maxillofacial Surgeon different from a regular dentist?
Yes, significantly. A maxillofacial surgeon has completed years of additional postgraduate specialisation in complex surgical procedures involving the mouth, jaw and facial structures, including bone grafting, implant surgery in compromised anatomy, jaw reconstruction and pathology management. General dentists receive foundational surgical training but are not qualified to perform the full range of procedures that fall within the maxillofacial surgery scope of practice.
Does TAOMS accreditation cover dental implants?
Absolutely. TAOMS accreditation covers the complete spectrum of implant-related surgery, including cases requiring significant bone augmentation, sinus floor elevation, zygomatic implants and custom subperiosteal implant systems. These are precisely the procedures where specialist-level training and national accreditation matter most for patient safety and clinical outcome.
Are surgical treatments in Turkey safe under TAOMS guidelines?
Yes. TAOMS guidelines are aligned with the standards of the International Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (IAOMS) and the European Association for Cranio-Maxillo-Facial Surgery (EACMFS), ensuring that infection control, surgical planning and complication management protocols meet internationally recognised benchmarks. At International Plus, these guidelines are implemented alongside ISO 9001:2015 quality management protocols and Turkish Ministry of Health accreditation.
How can I verify if my surgeon is a member of TAOMS?
You can request to see your surgeon’s professional credentials and TAOMS membership number directly at International Plus. You can also verify active membership status by consulting the official Turkish Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Association registry at taoms.org.tr. Our team encourages this verification as a standard part of informed patient decision-making before proceeding with any surgical care.
Scientific References
Monje A, et al. Effects of bone augmentation on implant success and survival: a retrospective analysis with 6-year mean follow-up. Clin Implant Dent Relat Res. 2025. PubMed: 40037311.
Clementini M, et al. Long-term follow-up of dental implants placed in autologous onlay bone graft. Int J Oral Maxillofac Implants. 2015. PubMed: 25535883.
Chhatwani S, et al. Perception of the scope of oral and maxillofacial surgery and differentiation from similar specialities among dental students, medical students, trainee interns and pre-vocational junior doctors. Br J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2024. PMC11330381.
Kemburu R, et al. Exceptional cases demand exceptional personalized solutions: the next level in dental rehabilitation. Cureus. 2024. PMC10971234.
Singhal MK, et al. Multidisciplinary approach in full mouth rehabilitation. Contemp Clin Dent. 2018. PMC6104362.
Reviewed by Dr. Emre Çolak, Head of Complex Surgical Procedures, International Plus Dental Clinic, Istanbul. PhD in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Gazi University. Turkish Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Association Member No: 506. ITI Member (ID: 41925). EAO Active Member 2026. EACMFS Certified.
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This content is written, reviewed, and approved by the International Plus Medical Review Board to ensure clinical accuracy and adherence to strict editorial standards. All medical information is regularly monitored, audited and updated in light of the latest scientific advancements.
However the information provided here is for general informational purposes only and cannot be used for self diagnosis or making individual health interpretations. Results of medical treatments depend on individual anatomy and the unique healing process of each patient. This information should not replace a personal consultation with a qualified healthcare professional. To understand the best options for your specific needs and to receive a personalized treatment plan, we invite you to book a free consultation with the expert medical team at International Plus.
I am a healthcare professional with over 4 years of experience in dentistry, specializing in prosthetic dental treatment and implant-based applications. Since 2024, I have been serving as chief physician, leading clinical management, team coordination, and international patient processes. With my B2-level English proficiency, I am able to communicate effectively with international patients. I am a patient-centered, innovative, and solution-oriented dentist who prioritizes patient satisfaction.
