In 1980, a new album by Asterix was published: “Asterix and The great divide”. The story reminds me a bit of the story of the oral surgery residency. In a small Gaulish village, quarrels lead to more quarrels. 2 protagonists both claim the place of leader. As no common ground can be found, the solution chosen is radical: the village is separated in the middle by a large trench which makes each half inaccessible to the other. Each half is administered by a cdifferenthief. What follows? you will read it in the comic; ending? a war in which there are no winners.

When we look at the distribution of the population of Surgeons-Dentists on the website of the Council of the Order of Surgeons-Dentists and that we dwell on our specialty, only 212 Surgeons-Dentists practice as specialists in Oral Surgery that is 0.50% of our profession with a geographical disparity generating a problematic situation for our correspondents and especially for patients, which is a real public health problem. This observation should highlight of the seriousness of the situation. Oral surgery has been a specialty in its own right since 2011, recently recognized by the National Academy of Surgery as the 13th surgical specialty, as Professor Torres reminded us in the previous editorial. These practitioners are specialists in oral surgery but also in oral medicine. They not only take care of all surgery of the oral cavity but also pathologies of the oral mucosa, an area that few general practitioner dentists or doctors are familiar with. However, this year, the number of oral surgeon resident positions in amount to only 38, which is in contradiction with the real need for specialists. During my presidency, I would like to encourage all the protagonists of oral and maxillofacial surgery to work in the same direction, leaving fruitless controversies aside by committing our energy to the collective good of the French population, which must be at the heart of our concerns. Let's train competent practitioners together, whatever their medical or dental background. Public health issues are important.

© The authors, 2022