Setting lofty goals
Dr. Likith V. Reddy was recently named department head of oral and maxillofacial surgery at Texas A&M College of Dentistry. He is clinical professor and program director, as well as medical student clerkship director in surgery for Texas A&M University College of Medicine. Reddy specializes in adult and pediatric cranio-maxillofacial surgery.
He previously chaired the COVID-19 task force that enabled the College of Dentistry to slowly and safely reopen in set phases. Reddy is now positioned to take on bigger plans within his own department.
“The reason I think I was offered the role was to see how we can refresh some of the things within the department and move forward in a newer direction,” he says. “We want to become the nation’s leading public academic department of oral and maxillofacial surgery and the leader in providing cutting-edge surgical and rehabilitative services in the maxillofacial, head and neck region. These are very ambitious goals.”
So far, Reddy’s signature accomplishments at the college have included expanding surgical collaboration beyond Baylor University Medical Center to two more Dallas hospitals: Methodist Dallas Medical Center and Children’s Health. The number of applicants to the OMS residency increased four-fold in the six years that he has been program director, making the residency one of the most competitive programs in the nation.
Before joining Texas A&M’s dental school in 2012, Reddy played an integral role in helping Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center School of Dentistry in New Orleans recover after Hurricane Katrina. As its department head in oral and maxillofacial surgery at the time, he was instrumental in cataloging every square inch of each practice space after the school was flooded with 20 feet of water.
Reddy earned his dental degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine in Cleveland. He obtained his medical degree, general surgery internship and residency in oral and maxillofacial surgery from UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgery and a diplomate in oral and maxillofacial surgery.
He helped develop transorbital keyhole access via upper blepharoplasty incision at Mayfield Clinic in Cincinnati. The minimally invasive technique, widely used in neurosurgery, is used to access intracranial tumors and aneurysms. Reddy also specializes in complex facial injuries and reconstruction and has more than $1 million in research grants in craniofacial reconstruction.
Reddy replaces Dr. Robert G. Triplett, who led the department as interim head after Dr. David Grogan retired in August 2019.