Dr Tariq Ali 

I’m a dual-qualified Consultant Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon, with degreesin both dentistry and medicine. Oral and maxillofacial surgery sits at a rare intersection of medicine, dentistry and surgery. It’s a specialty that demands both breadth of experience and a fine, detail-oriented approach to some of the body’s most intricate anatomy, paired with the scope to treat everything from a single tooth to complex facial reconstruction. That combination is what drew me in, and it’s still what makes me excited to come to work every day.

My training took me through major tertiary hospitals across Australia and the United Kingdom, along with multiple fellowships on both sides of the world, including time treating military personnel with complex, high-energy injuries — experiences that taught me to think clearly and work calmly under real pressure, and still shapes how I approach difficult cases today.

Beyond my core training, I was fortunate enough to rotate through many other specialties — including working as a dentist and in emergency medicine, as well as burns, plastics and reconstructive surgery, ENT and cardiac surgery. Together, they gave me a working understanding of how other specialties think and operate, and the ability to draw on skills across all of them — invaluable in the multidisciplinary work I do now, from implant rehabilitation to head and neck oncology and reconstruction.

My clinical interests include:

• Dental implantology and advanced bone grafting — replacing missing teeth with implants, including rebuilding jawbone where there isn’t enough left to support them
• Dentoalveolar and wisdom tooth surgery — removing wisdom teeth and other surgery involving teeth and the surrounding jawbone
• Head and neck pathology and reconstruction — diagnosing and treating tumours, cysts and other conditions in the mouth, jaw, face and neck, and rebuilding the area afterwards
• Orthognathic surgery — corrective jaw surgery to fix mismatches between the upper and lower jaw, improving how the teeth bite together, facial balance, and in some cases breathing
• TMJ surgery — treatment for problems with the jaw joint itself (the temporomandibular joint), which can cause pain, clicking, or difficulty opening and closing the mouth
• Maxillofacial trauma — treating facial injuries and fractures, from accidents or high-impact trauma
• Facial aesthetics and skin cancer treatment — cosmetic facial procedures, and the removal and reconstruction of skin cancers on the face

That range means patients and referrers can access the full scope of the specialty right here on the Sunshine Coast, without needing to send complex cases away.

For me, good surgery is only half the job. When a patient comes to me, their problem becomes mine, no matter how small. I want people to feel looked after, not processed — and I want referrals to feel easy, direct and responsive.

If you’d like to discuss your own care, or you’re a colleague looking to discuss a patient or send a referral, I’d love to hear from you.