Rate My Professor Darryl Tong

Professor Darryl Tong serves as Professor and Head of the Department of Oral Diagnostic and Surgical Sciences, and Associate Dean (Pacific) in the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Otago. He holds the qualifications BDS, MB ChB, MSD, PhD, PGDipSEM, FFDRCSI, FDSRCS, FACOMS, FACS, and FICD. As a specialist in oral and maxillofacial surgery, he is also a Consultant Maxillofacial Surgeon for Southern District Health Board. Promoted to full Professor effective 1 February 2016, Tong has combined academic, clinical, and military careers, including service as Lieutenant Colonel in the New Zealand Army Reserves and deployment to Afghanistan in 2009. He invented the Temporary Inter Maxillary Stabilisation (TIMS) device for treating facial trauma in hostile environments, developed in collaboration with a dental technician, which has attracted commercial interest.

Tong's research focuses on military and civilian trauma, particularly ballistic injuries to the head, face, and neck, sports-related concussion and subconcussive impacts, forensic biology, sports medicine, and clinical areas in oral and maxillofacial surgery including dentoalveolar surgery, pathology, trauma, and dental implantology. His PhD examined war injuries of the face and jaws from integrated historical and surgical viewpoints, incorporating audits from World War I cases and contemporary conflicts. He co-directs the South Island Interdisciplinary Brain Injury Research Group and serves on the management committee for the Veterans' Health Research Group. In 2016, he received the Ako Aotearoa Award for Sustained Excellence in Tertiary Teaching for his work across undergraduate, postgraduate, and specialist training levels in oral and maxillofacial surgery. Key publications include 'Contact role and tackle characteristics shape head acceleration exposure in male community rugby: A cohort study utilising instrumented mouthguards' (Sports Medicine, 2025), 'From tooth to vision: A decade of breakthroughs in osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (OOKP) and modified OOKP' (Seminars in Ophthalmology, 2025), 'Patient perceptions of the service provision at an academic oral medicine clinic' (New Zealand Dental Journal, 2025), and 'Combat Body Armor and Injuries to the Head, Face, and Neck Region: A Systematic Review' (Military Medicine, 2013). Tong contributes to the editorial board of Oral Surgery and delivers lectures integrating pedagogy with clinical challenges.