SURGEONS
Tauranga Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery offers the expertise of four surgeons;
DR BRENTON WILSON
Specialist Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon
DR NABEELA AHMED
Specialist Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon
DR ABI ESTELLE
Specialist Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon
DR JOHN BRIDGMAN
Specialist Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons specialise in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases affecting the mouth, jaws, face, and neck. It is a unique surgical specialty requiring a dual qualification in medicine and dentistry. It encompasses the full range of oral surgery including the extraction of teeth, the removal of impacted wisdom teeth, the placement of dental implants and the use of intravenous sedation. The maxillofacial training expands into management of medical and surgical problems of the mouth, jaws and face.
Dr Brenton Wilson
MBBS (Hons), BDS, FRACDS (OMS)
Brenton (BJ) Wilson, grew up on North Stradbroke Island, off the coast off Brisbane in Queensland.
He initially completed his medical degree in far north Queensland at James Cook University, before working in the Northern Territory and South Australia for basic surgical training. In pursuit of maxillofacial surgery, he then completed his dental degree back at James Cook University.
He completed his specialist maxillofacial training in New Zealand and worked in the Christchurch, Dunedin, Waikato and Auckland training units. During his training, he received the medals for highest score in the RACDS SST and final fellowship exams. In addition to surgery, BJ has taught anatomy for 4 years to dentists sitting the primary exams.
Drawn back to the coast, he has joined Tauranga OMS in 2024, where he practices the breadth of general scope maxillofacial surgery including: oral surgery, orthognathic, TMJ, salivary gland, facial skin cancer, infection and facial trauma.
Dr Nabeela Ahmed
BDS, MFDS (Eng), MBChB, FRCS (OMFS), MMedsci (Med Ed)
Nabeela is a UK trained oral and maxillofacial surgeon
Nabeela did her dental training at Guy's Hospital, London and graduated in medicine from the University of Sheffield. Her higher surgical training has been across a number of hospitals including Guys, Kings College, St. George's, Royal Derby and the Queen's Medical Centre Nottingham. She did a 2 year fellowship at the Royal Darwin Hospital, Australia and Waikato Hospital. She has also undertaken a formal AO Trauma fellowship in Munich, Germany, to pursue her interest in facial trauma.
She worked full time from 2021-2024 as a UK NHS consultant at the Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham but in 2024 elected to return back to New Zealand. She provides both routine and out of hours on call services for Tauranga Hospital.
Her specialist interests are trauma and facial deformity including orthognathic and TMJ surgery, although she practices the full spectrum of maxillofacial surgery.
Outside of formal work she has an interest in teaching and training and holds Masters in Medical Education with Merit.
Dr Abi Estelle
MBBS, BDS, MRCS (Eng), FRCD(C)
Abi is a British and American trained Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon.
Abi was born in Cambridge, UK and grew up in the south-east, attending school in Walmer and Sandwich before moving to London to study medicine. During her degree she spent some time on board Mercy Ships in Sierra Leone which was her first encounter with maxillofacial surgery. Inspired, she completed her medical degree, spent her junior house officer years rotating through general surgery and ENT, before returning to the Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’ University to study dentistry. Throughout this time Abi continued to volunteer overseas whenever possible. She has visited over 50 countries and provided medical care in 5 continents. It was in Haiti that she met her husband, Kenny, an American!
Completing dentistry Abi moved to Jacksonville, Florida to undertake 5 years oral and maxillofacial specialty training. Jacksonville is renowned for its breadth of max-fac training which boasts a strong Head and Neck cancer centre, a cleft and craniofacial team, level 1 trauma as well as orthognathic, TMJ, cosmetic and dentoalveolar surgery. Upon graduation Abi and Kenny decided to relocate the family to their favourite country; New Zealand!
Abi enjoys treating all aspects of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. This includes:
- Diagnosis and Management of pain of the mouth, jaws and face
- Surgical Extraction of teeth
- Placement of Dental Implants
- Management of Trauma to the teeth, jaws and facial bones
- Surgery of the jaw joint (TMJ)
- Correction of jaw deformities and discrepancies (Orthognathic Surgery)
- Management of Salivary Gland Tissues
Abi has a particular interest in global surgery and understanding difficulties and discrepancies in access to medical and surgical care
She is active in addressing this through her role as medical board director for the children’s charity www.willingandabel.org.uk and membership with the Global Alliance for Surgical, Obstetric, Trauma and Anaesthesia Care. She is also on standby with Samaritan’s Purse International Disaster Response Team.
Dr John Bridgman
MBChB BDS MDS FRACDS (OMS)
A New Zealander by birth, John completed his Dental Degree at Otago University in 1990. He became interested in the surgical aspects of dentistry whilst working as a dentist at Christchurch Hospital for two years after graduation.
He joined the staff at the University of Otago in the Oral Surgery Department for two years lecturing and training in Oral Surgery. Following this he entered the New Zealand training program in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery by completing a Masters Degree in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and a Medical Degree, both from the University of Otago. After working for two years as a Medical Doctor at Palmerston North he held Higher Surgical Training Posts in Oral and Maxillofacial for one year in Auckland and two years in the United Kingdom at the East Grinstead Maxillofacial Unit. This unit is a famous and prestigious unit that provided John with valuable experience in Reconstructive Surgery of the face and jaws. John returned to Tauranga, New Zealand in 2004 and joined David Chrisp to form Tauranga OMS.
John enjoys treating all aspects of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. This includes:
- Diagnosis and Management of pain of the mouth, jaws and face
- Surgical Extraction of teeth
- Placement of Dental Implants
- Management of Trauma to the teeth, jaws and facial bones
- Surgery of the jaw joint (TMJ)
- Correction of jaw deformities and discrepancies (Orthognathic Surgery)
- Management of Salivary Gland Tissues
