El Paso Children’s Hospital OMFS Cleft and Craniofacial Fellowship

Mission Statement

The El Paso Cleft & Craniofacial Fellowship is committed to comprehensively training future surgeon leaders in the area of complex Cleft & Craniofacial Surgery while providing the highest quality of care available to our patients.
The El Paso Cleft & Craniofacial Fellowship is a Type I: Craniofacial and Cleft
(Categories I, II, III, IV) Fellowship

Areas of Focus: 

  • Comprehensive Cleft and Craniofacial Surgery

    • Cleft Lip and Palate; Craniosynostosis and Craniofacial Surgery; Pediatric Hard ad Soft Tissue Trauma; Hard and Soft Tissue Pathology and Reconstruction; Cleft and Craniofacial Research.

Program Director:  David Yates DMD, MD, FACS

Contact email: 

Contact phone number: 

  • Dr. David Yates | Fellowship Director | 321.544.8515

    Kimberly Marquez | Craniofacial Clinical Coordinator | 915.312.4040

Program website: www.hdofs.com and www.elpasochildrens.org 

Accreditation Status:  The Fellowship program was granted approval by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA), making it the first and ONLY accredited fellowship program in the country. The Fellowship, which first became fully operational in 2018, is committed to comprehensively training future surgeon leaders in the area of complex Cleft and Craniofacial Surgery, all while providing the highest quality of care available to our patients.

Enrollment: 1 fellow is enrolled per year

Duration of Fellowship: 1 year

Required application materials:

Process for Application:

  • The applicant must call Points of contact or email Dr. Yates directly. 

  • The applicant must first complete a telephone interview with Dr. Yates. Depending on this interview, the applicant may or may not be invited to come for a formal interview and program visit. Prior to this, the applicant must submit supporting application documents.

  • Additional application documents include: 

    • 3 letters of recommendation from residency program. If the applicant is not recently in a residency program (within the last 5 years), the letters should be from work associates and surgeons familiar with the applicant’s work.

    • Updated Curriculum Vitae

    • Letter of Intent

    • Optional: professional headshot

  • During the visit, the applicant will be evaluated for his/her ability to interact and relate to teaching staff and administrative staff. 

  • Prior to a decision being made, the fellowship director will call former associates/attendings to discuss the applicant’s overall abilities. 

  • A decision will be made by the Fellowship Program Director approximately 1 year prior to the fellowship start date.

Eligibility requirements:

Requirements for Admission to Fellowship:

  • The applicant must have completed a Surgical Residency in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, 4 year or 6 year (MD) track, from an accredited OMFS program.

  • The applicant must be board eligible for Oral Maxillofacial Surgery.

  • The applicant must be in good standing with residency attendings or former associates.

Program description:

On the average week (some weeks will vary):

  • The fellow will operate 3 days, Cleft/Cranio Clinics 1.5 days, and run a sedation/3rd molar clinic 0.5 days per week.

  • When in town, the fellow will be on Cleft/Cranio Call at El Paso Children’s Hospital every day, however, at least two Fri/Sat/Sundays every month the fellow will not have any call.

  • Trauma Call – the fellow will be the trauma attending 1 week out of every 3, as averaged out over the year. 

  • Vacation x 3 weeks (15 work days) which includes 1 week at the ACPA Annual Meeting where the fellow is expected to present his/her results as either a poster or abstract presentation.  This project must also be submitted for publication prior to completion of the program.

Fellowship Responsibilities:

  1. Attends all Cleft/Craniofacial cases. Conflicts in scheduling will be resolved by the fellowship program director.

  2. Presents Craniofacial/Clinic Cases at Surgical Conference Monthly.

  3. Attends all clinics with positional plagiocephaly, craniosynostosis, orthognathic, pediatric pathology and cleft lip and palate patients.

  4. Participates in all scheduled off-service rotations and have evaluation form completed.

    1. Otolaryngology and Plastic Surgery when possible case dependent

    2. Pediatric Dentist Rotation for Nasoalveolar Molding – 2 days

    3. Neonatal Intensive Care Unit – 1 week

    4. Pediatric Anesthesia Rotation – 2 weeks

  5. Be present for preoperative and postoperative evaluations of cleft and craniofacial patients.

  6. Be involved in management and treatment for all surgical and medical complications.

  7. The fellow is responsible for bringing shadow charts, x-rays, CT scans, photographs, distractor devices, models, splints, and appropriate lab work to all cases (They will be collected by our assistants and left with the fellow the day before surgery).

  8. Pre-operative photographs are to be taken on every patient.

  9. The fellow is responsible for rounding on, caring for, and writing notes on all post-operative cleft/craniofacial patients.

  10. During the post-operative course, the fellow is responsible for updating the appropriate attending(s) with the patient’s progress.

  11. It is the fellow’s responsibility to see all inpatient consults related to cleft, orthognathic, and craniofacial surgery and inform the appropriate attending.  These patients will be monitored with daily progress notes while admitted to the hospital.  This is also the appropriate time for patient/family education. The fellow will refer the family to the team coordinator family to the team coordinator for an appropriate follow-up appointment in clinic.  Also, please bring a copy of the face sheet and record at the top a contact phone number for the family.

  12. Attendance at the Annual American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association conference or American Academy of Craniomaxillofacial Surgeons is expected.  The department will pay for this trip. It is expectation that the fellow will be able to present research at this conference.

  13. Fellow responsibilities include teaching of residents as an attending in non-fellowship related surgical cases (i.e. adult trauma, dentoalveolar, infections).

Research:

Each fellow is to complete one research project during the one-year program.  The fellow must submit a poster or abstract presentation at the annual ACPA or AACMFS meeting.  Also, this project must be submitted for publication prior to completion of the program. A faculty member will mentor this project. By July 31st of the first year of fellowship the fellow is to have a research topic for discussion.