Title: Pilot study: Personality types and traits of oral and maxillofacial surgeons
Abstract:
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator identifies 16 personality types amongst 4 dichotomies. Physicians and Dentist have show dominance of ESTJ and ISTJ personality types with dichotomy traits of sensing, judging and thinking. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons are a unique specialty of dentistry that possess a surgical background. This specialty has not been identified in personality studies.
Data was collected using a self-reported questionnaire among practicing Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (n = 71)..Statistically significant results were found with a dominant personality of ENTJ (p<.001), which has not been identified as dominant for physicians or dentists. Personality traits were statically significant for judging, thinking, intuition and extrovert. The dominant Intuition trait is a new finding for physicians and dentists. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons are leadership oriented with structured organization and logical decision making strengths.
Introduction: The Myers-Briggs Type Indictor (MBTI) questionnaire identifies different psychological preferences on how the world is perceived by a person affecting their decision choices based on Carl Jung’s theory of psychological types conceived in the 1920s1-2. MBTI was developed in the 1940s by Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers3 with four identifiable personality traits establishing the 16 distinct personality types1. The four identifiable personality dichotomies are identified as, energy source, extrovert (E) versus introvert (I); information gathering, sensing (S) or intuition (N); decision making, thinking (T) versus feeling (F); and lifestyle approach, judging (J) versus perceiving (P)3. This MBTI questionnaire has been used as a guide for careers, leadership, communication, learning, counselling and coaching1-5. The MBTI is considered to be a reliable and validated questionnaire for determining personality traits2. Studies of physicians and dentist have shown ESTJ and ISTJ dominant personality types1-2 Studies differ on extroversion versus introversion dominance in the medical and dental fields2. One of the most consistent results pertaining to health professional personalities is the sensing (S) and judging (J) traits. In addition, it has been shown that physicians in surgery specialties greater personality trait of thinking (T)1. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons are a unique type of dental specialists who combine dental expertise with advanced surgical training with focus on dental, bone and soft tissues of the head and neck region with some Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons having both a dental and medical degree. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons have not been studied regarding personality type with associated dichotomy traits.
Materials and Methods: Data was collected using a self-reported questionnaire distributed to practicing Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons across the United States of America. Complete data were available for 71 questionnaires that was obtained from February 7, 2025 to April 2, 2025. Questions induced personality results from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, number of working days per week, participation in hospital call and trauma call.
Results: This study showed of the 71 Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (Chart 1) that 30.1% of the surgeons had ENTJ personality type; whereas, ESTJ 16.9% and ISTJ 12.3% accounted for the 2nd and 3rd most common personality types. These three personality types made up 58.8% of the surgeons. The remaining 41.2% was found to be distributed among INTJ, ENFJ, ISFJ, ESFJ, INFJ, INFP and ENFP. Of the 16 personality types 6 were not found amongst the surgeons. ENTJ at 30.1% stands out when compared to the general population of 1.8% (p<.001) (Chart 2). Dominant dichotomy traits (Table 1) were found to be Judging 97.2% (p<.001), Thinking 71.8% (p<.001), Extrovert 66.2% (p = 0.013) and Intuition 56.3% (p = 0.013).
In addition to personality types number of days worked averaged 4.5 of those surveyed with range of 3 to 5 days a week with 57.7% of those surveyed working 5 days a week. Along with numbers of days worked Surgeons found to be participating in hospital call was 67.6% and of those 47.9% included facial trauma call as part of their hospital call requirements. No personality type or trait correlated to numbers of days worked, nor participating in hospital or trauma call.
Conclusions and Future Direction: This study reveals that Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons have a dominant statistically significant personality type of ENTJ (p<.001). ESTJ (p = 0.023) was also found to be significant in comparison to the general population trends. Results were similar to previous studies of ESTJ and ISTJ dominant personality types for Medical and Dental professionals, but the ENTJ personality was not dominantly present in other studies or the general population1-2, which is a new finding of a dominant personality type specific for the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery specialty.
All dominant dichotomy personality traits were statistically significant in comparison to the general population. This study revealed dominant judging, thinking, intuition and extrovert, which differed from other studies of dominant sensing over intuition and mixed results of extrovert versus introvert1-2.
Overall results suggest Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons are leadership oriented with structured organization and logical decision making strengths. The ENTJ and ESTJ personality types differ with informational gathering where ENTJ lean towards innovation and new ideas compared to ESTJ focusing on detail and proven methods for consistency. Future directions involve obtaining a larger data base to verify findings.
