Keeping Care Local
Keeping El Paso Patients Home: Local Practice Endows Oral Surgery Residency
High Desert Oral and Facial Surgery gift creates $500,000 residency leadership position to develop training pathway for oral surgeons at Texas Tech Health El Paso
For El Paso surgeon Vernon Burke, sending one El Paso child hundreds of miles for specialized oral surgery is too many.
A major gift from High Desert Oral and Facial Surgery will help Texas Tech Health El Paso keep complex oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) care local while training specialists in El Paso in trauma, reconstructive and complex jaw procedures to serve the region for generations.
To address the shortage, the El Paso-based practice has committed $250,000 to establish the High Desert Oral and Facial Surgery Endowed Professorship at the Hunt School of Dental Medicine. Texas Tech Health El Paso will match the gift, creating a $500,000 endowed professorship to anchor the dental school’s new Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency Program.
West Texas and southern New Mexico face a critical shortage of OMFS specialists, who restore a person's ability to eat, speak and smile with confidence. El Paso County is a dental health professional shortage area, with roughly one dentist per 2,969 residents, far below the U.S. average of one per 1,660 residents.
This access gap is compounded by broader oral health workforce shortages. Most dental health professional shortage areas are rural or partly rural, which leaves more than 31 million people nationwide without adequate oral health care.
“We would not have this residency program without the support of High Desert Oral and Facial Surgery,” said Richard Black, D.D.S., dean of the dental school. “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.”
High Desert gift seeds first OMFS endowed professorship
The endowed professorship will support the director of the four-year Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency Program at the Hunt School of Dental Medicine. The pledge positions High Desert as a founding stakeholder in building a nationally competitive residency program rooted in El Paso, which marks the first enduring institutional commitment to 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.”
Vernon Burke, D.M.D., M.D., FACS, founding director of the OMFS residency program, is expected to serve as the inaugural High Desert Oral and Facial Surgery endowed professor.
Answering a critical shortage in oral surgery
Dr. Burke said when he began practicing in El Paso, he would evaluate children who needed surgery, but they often would have to travel to San Antonio for their procedures, as that was one of the nearest cities with an established OMFS program.
“When I came to El Paso, I came here with a mission to stop that,” he 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.”
Before the Hunt School of Dental Medicine and its Texas Tech Dental Oral Health Clinic opened, many West Texas residents had to choose between leaving town for treatment and going without care.
“What happens to these patients is that they get incomplete care or no care,” Dr. Burke explained. “By the time they get to somebody who's going to do something about it, it’s usually too late.”
A tri-site training model rooted in the Borderplex
The four-year OMFS residency immerses residents in a high-acuity, tri-site model across 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 rotate among the sites, gaining experience in emergency trauma, complex reconstructive surgery and pediatric care within a bilingual, bicultural environment.
All eight High Desert partners serve as faculty at the dental school, anchoring the residency's clinical strength. The practice includes surgeons experienced in craniofacial and cleft care, as well as microsurgeons who care for most local head and neck cancer patients.
“It's unusual to have such a close ‘town-and-gown’ relationship,” Dr. Black said, referring to the school’s strong partnerships with local providers. “This gift exemplifies what can happen when a community practice and a dental school truly work together.”
OMFS residency puts a human face on regional impact
The inaugural OMFS residents — Rebeca Rodriguez, D.D.S.; Grace Garry, D.D.S.; and Kaivon Moradi, D.M.D. — reflect the determination and diversity the program aims to cultivate. The program began last July.
Dr. Rodriguez's journey began as a dental student in Caracas, Venezuela, inspired by renowned Houston-based facial reconstruction surgeon Dr. Cesar Guerrero. She went on to complete OMFS training and practice in Colombia, followed by two demanding internship years in San Antonio before joining the El Paso residency.
“I knew from day one I wanted to be a surgeon,” Dr. Rodriguez said. For her, repeating residency in the United States is “not repeating — it's just keep learning, keep learning, and getting better.” She describes oral and maxillofacial surgery as her “endless love,” recalling how she styled a patient's hair before cranial surgery so the patient wouldn’t have to shave her head.
The residency has drawn strong national interest. For the second cohort, to be seated in July, Dr. Burke received 150 applications for three positions in a specialty that graduates only 230 to 250 residents nationwide each year. In their first six months, the inaugural residents have already performed twice as many procedures and cases as required by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) for that period, which reflects the program's early clinical strength.
“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.
About Texas Tech Health El Paso
Texas Tech Health El Paso serves 108 counties in West Texas and is dedicated to preparing the next generation of health care heroes. Established as an independent university in 2013, Texas Tech Health El Paso is a uniquely innovative destination for medical, nursing, biomedical sciences and dental education.
Focusing on excellence in health care education, research, and clinical service, Texas Tech Health El Paso has graduated over 2,600 professionals over the past decade. For more information, visit ttuhscepimpact.org.