John Kent, DDS, FACD, FICD
Boyd Professor
Professor Emeritus
Former Department Chairman 1973-2008
Dr. John (Jack) N. Kent was born and raised as a Cornhusker in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. He received his BA from Hastings College, Nebraska in 1960. Full-time education and research have occupied the entire surgery career of Dr. Kent, a 1963 graduate of University of Nebraska School of Dentistry, Three year US Public Health Service military obligation with one year medical/dental internship in 1966, and 1969 graduate of the University of Texas Medical Center in Houston Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMS) residency training program. Jack subsequently served as a full-time OMS faculty member at the University of Texas in Houston (1969-72), University of Iowa (1972-3), and as Head of OMS at LSU Health Sciences Center School of Dentistry and Chief of OMS at Medical Center of Louisiana (Charity Hospital) in New Orleans 1973 – 2002 and 2003 - 2008. Simultaneously he also served as Head of OMS, Division of Surgery, at LSU School of Medicine in Shreveport, 1978-2003. During his 45-year career Dr. Kent served on the staff of 20 hospitals.
Dr. Kent was appointed the 33rd Boyd Professor of the LSU System, in 1983, and is one of 7 Boyd Professors in the history of the LSU Medical Center. He served 9 years on the Executive Board of Hotel Dieu/University Hospital in New Orleans in which he was Chairman of the Eye, ENT, OMS department for 6 years, and was President-Elect of the Medical Staff at the University Hospital when it was united with Medical Center of Louisiana Hospital. He was President of the Louisiana Society and the Southeastern Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. In 1988 the LSU OMS department received the LSU Medical Center's first one-million-dollar chair, the James R. Peltier Endowed Chair. Dr. Kent occupied that chair as its first eminent scholar from 1988 to 2012.
Dr. Kent's teaching and research has rendered him an authority in orthognathic surgery, facial deformities and reconstructive surgery, cosmetic surgery, dental and facial implants, facial bone grafting and biomaterials with authorship in 25 textbooks and over 250 journal and abstract publications. Invited lectures in the United States and abroad total over 300 presentations. Because of his research interest in facial biomaterials and dental implants, he maintained adjunctive professorship in Tulane University Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering for 3 decades.
He is the coauthor of the first United States textbook on orthognathic surgery and facial deformities with Edward C. Hinds, DDS, MD, forwarded by Michael DeBakey, MD. Dr. Kent became a Fulbright Scholar in 1985
Advancing and strengthening the goals of OMS residency education for improved patient care and surgical scope has been the highlight of Dr. Kent’s career. The LSU OMS residency on Dr. Kent’s arrival in 1973 was three years in length and which included anesthesia, medicine, and neurosurgery. The residency became four years in 1978, which included a full year of surgery and surgical specialties. In 1989 the LSU OMS residency became a 6-year OMS – MD program with advanced standing in medical school. The residency program maintained its traditional 4 years of OMS training with general surgery, neurosurgery and surgical specialties, anesthesia and medicine. In the years to follow a significant number of LSU OMS graduates obtained one or two-years fellowship training in craniofacial surgery, cosmetic surgery, reconstruction with microvascular surgery, and cancer.
Since 1974 Dr. Kent has directed nearly 100 OMS continuing education courses on behalf of the LSU department of OMS, both the Louisiana and the Southeastern Society of OMS, and the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Among those courses are 50 years of the week long LSU Comprehensive Review Course in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and 15 years of Cosmetic Maxillofacial Surgery Courses for OMS practitioners and residents throughout the United State. In 2012 he developed an annual Pearls in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Course for the LSU OMS Alumni and friends.
Dr. Kent has been the investigator and author of 40 significant research projects totaling over $4.5 million and has received the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons Annual Research Recognition Award. Dr. Kent was the Principle Investigator for a $3 million NIH Grant from 1987-1995 which provided PhD training in Anatomy for 9 Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, the greatest number ever from a single institution in OMS. He teamed with Marilyn Zimny, PhD, Head of LSUSM Department of Anatomy and Dean of the LSU Medical Center School of Graduate Studies, Sam McClugage, PhD and Associate Dean of Admissions, LSUSM, and Michael Block, DMD, Director of Research, LSUSD.
Dr. Kent is the recipient of the coveted Geis Foundation Award, the Simon P. Hullihen Award, the Louisiana Dental Association's Distinguished Service Award, the American College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon's Harry Archer Award, the 2014 AAOMS Presidential Achievement Award, the 2016 Southeastern Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Life Time Achievement Award, the 2016 “first ever” LSU School of Dentistry Life Time Achievement Award. The American College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon dedicated their 39th annual meeting to Dr. Kent.
Dr. Kent has served on the editorial board of several surgical, medical and dental journals including the Journal of Oral Maxillofacial Surgery where he was the Surgery section editor for several years. His service to the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon includes significant leadership on 7 committees. He is a Fellow of the American College of Dentists and International College of Dentists. He is a Diplomate of his specialties American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (ABOMS). He served on the ABOMS Advisory and Examining Committee for 6 years, the Board of Directors for 7 years, was chairperson of the ABOMS written examination committee for 4 years, and was President of ABOMS 1987-88.
In 2009 LSU Alumni, led by Eric Geist, DDS, FACS, formed the Jack Kent Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Foundation to support the LSU OMS residency and create another LSU OMS Chair. On April 7, 2017, at the annual Pearls in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery course, the LSU Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Alumni Association and the Jack Kent Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Foundation presented a life size Bronze Sculpture of Dr. Kent. The sculpture resides in the new Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery clinic in the Allen A. Copping Advanced Clinical Care and Research Building on the LSU School of Dentistry campus.
Finally, Dr. Kent received in 2024 the Robert V. Walker Distinguish Service Award from American Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, its highest surgical award.