Dr. Ellis with patient

Changing faces, improving lives

Tuesday, September 1, 2015by Rosanne Fohn


World-renowned oral and maxillofacial surgeon Edward Ellis III, D.D.S., M.S., works with underlying bone, muscles, skin and other tissues to improve oral function and enhance his patients’ appearance.

Summers in Grand Haven, Mich., were great for Edward Ellis, III, D.D.S., M.S. “When I was in high school and college, my summer job was to run the concession stand my father owned at Grand Haven State Park. In fact, I lived in a nice apartment above the concession stand during those months,” he said.

The park is on the western bank of Lake Michigan, which offers a sandy beach during the warmer months and access to a white desert of ice in the winter. It was the perfect vacation hangout, said Dr. Ellis, now a professor and chairman of the Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery (OMS) in the School of Dentistry at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio.

In fact, his teens were so relaxing that he had some difficulty picking a major for college. “I really couldn’t decide. Finally, my dad said, ‘Why don’t you become a dentist like your Uncle Joe?’ He was my dentist, and it looked like a good living, so I tried it,” Dr. Ellis said.

Starting the journey

Once he finally had a goal, he was able to focus much better in school. He took predental classes at the University of Toledo and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree magda cum laude. He graduated from the University of Michigan dental school. “I would never have believed that anything could have been as difficult as dental school. We had classes eight hours a day and 16 exams in the first semester. All I did was go to class and study. But the next three years I loved working with my hands and with patients, and I did really well. By the third year I couldn’t imagine doing anything else,” he said.

Improving lives

When it came time to specialize, he was drawn to oral and maxillofacial surgery. The dental surgeons work to improve the function of the jaws, teeth, oral cavity and other facial structures by working with the underlying bone, muscles, skin and other tissues. 

“It is so rewarding to help people overcome facial deformities, traumatic injuries and pathology. The ability to reconstruct their jaws and teeth using dental implants can have a big impact on their lives,” Dr. Ellis said. “Patients with such problems really like the results, and for some people, their maladies have bothered them all of their lives. It affects them psychologically. When you are able to improve function and give them a more pleasing appearance it really helps them,” he said.

Dr. Ellis completed his OMS residency at the University of Michigan, then joined the faculty where he worked for about six years before joining the Department of OMS at UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas in 1988, where he also directed the OMS residency program at Parkland Hospital.

Renowned researcher

During the 1980s and 1990s, Dr. Ellis focused much of his attention on research. He helped set new standards for correcting dental and facial deformities through surgery, and improving dental and nasal function. Due to his research and clinical expertise, he is considered an international expert in the field.  

“Basically, what I did was help establish, through research, predictable methods to improve facial appearance and oral function with the fewest complications,” he said.

He received the prestigious Daniel M. Laskin Award twice for the best manuscript published in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and was awarded the American Association of OMS’s Research Recognition Award in 1997. 

He has served as president of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and has participated on numerous committees and task force groups with the American Association of OMS, the British Association of OMS, the International Association of OMS and the International Association of Dental Research. He was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, one of the few U.S. oral and maxillofacial surgeons with this honor.

New OMS clinic crowns career

Today, he proudly shows off the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinic at the UT Health Science Center’s brand new Center for Oral Health & Research at 8210 Floyd Curl Drive. “We have the finest oral and maxillofacial surgery clinic I’ve ever seen, which includes an operating room for major intubated oral and maxillofacial surgical procedures,” he said.

Who would have thought an academically unfocused teenager selling food at a state park concession stand would have come so far?

“I just love what I do, not just because of the surgical work, but because every day is different,” said Dr. Ellis, who also directs the six-year M.D./D.D.S. program at the Health Science Center. “I get to pass along what I’ve learned along the way to new oral and maxillofacial surgeons starting out in the field.”