High Desert Oral and Facial Surgery endows oral surgery residency

kvia.com · Feb 27, 2026 · Collected from GDELT

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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- High Desert Oral and Facial Surgery, an El Paso based practice, and Texas Tech Health El Paso created a $500,000 residency leadership position to develop a training pathway for oral surgeons at Texas Tech Health El Paso. High Desert Oral and Facial Surgery committed $250,000 to address the shortage and establish the High Desert Oral and Facial Surgery Endowed Professorship at the Hunt School of Dental Medicine. Texas Tech Health El Paso then matched the gift. TT HEALTH EP The gift will help Texas Tech Health El Paso keep complex oral and maxillofacial surgery care locally while training specialists in El Paso in trauma, reconstructive and complex jaw procedures. “We would not have this residency program without the support of High Desert Oral and Facial Surgery,” Richard Black, D.D.S., dean of the dental school, said. “Their support during the formative years of our school was vital. Back then, we didn't have any alumni, but we had partners in the community who believed in the vision for this school.” The endowed professorship will support the director of the four-year residency program and place High Desert as a founding stakeholder to build a nationally competitive residency program in El Paso. This marks the first institutional commitment in oral surgery training in the Borderplex. “High Desert recognizes that it takes talent and money to create a premier residency program, and this $250,000 gift, matched by Texas Tech Health El Paso, does exactly that,” Dr. Black said. “This will be sought after as a high-demand residency — and this gift helps secure its future for our school and for El Paso.” TT HEALTH EP Vernon Burke, D.M.D., M.D., FACS is the founding director of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery residency program and is expected to serve as the High Desert Oral and Facial Surgery endowed professor. All eight High Desert partners will serve as faculty at the dental school. Dr. Burke told Texas Tech Health El Paso, when he began practicing in El Paso he would evaluate children who needed surgery and would have to send them to San Antonio for their procedures. “When I came to El Paso, I came here with a mission to stop that,” Burke said. “That mission will not be complete until there are enough oral and maxillofacial surgeons here to do what is required at a high enough level so El Pasoans can get world-class care.” The four-year Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery residency will immerse residents in three clinical partners, the Texas Tech Dental Oral Health Clinic, University Medical Center of El Paso and its westside clinic at High Desert Oral and Facial Surgery, and El Paso Children's Hospital. Residents will rotate among the sites to gain experience in trauma, complex reconstructive surgery and pediatric care within a bilingual, bicultural environment. The residency has drawn many applicants. The cohort that will be seated in July has received 150 applicants for three positions in an area that typically only graduates 230 to 250 residents nationwide each year. The inaugural residents have already performed twice as many procedures required by the Commission on Dental Accreditation. “Success would be that the residents graduate and that they're good surgeons — proficient, safe surgeons who take good care of people and take care of the need of their community no matter where that's at,” Dr. Burke said.