Otolaryngology is the branch of medicine that specializes in the diagnosis and treatment
of ear, nose, throat, and head & neck disorders. The full name of the specialty
is otolaryngology-head and neck surgery. Practitioners are called otolaryngologists-head
and neck surgeons, or sometimes otorhinolaryngologists (ORL).
A commonly used term for this specialty is ENT (ear, nose and throat).
Otolaryngologists
are medical doctors (MD,MBBS,MBChB,etc.) or osteopathic
doctors (DO) who complete at least five years of surgical residency training.
Currently, this comprises one year in general surgical training and four years
in otolaryngology - head and neck surgery; in the past it varied between two and
three years of each. Otolaryngology is considered to be one of the most competitive
residency fields to match into.
Following residency training,
some otolaryngologists elect to complete advanced subspeciality fellowship training
which can range from one to three years in duration. |
