Photo By Regena Kowitz | SAN DIEGO (Aug. 19, 2025) — Cmdr. Daniel Hammer, maxillofacial surgeon and director...... read more read more
SAN DIEGO – Behind the doors of an operating room at Naval Medical Center San Diego, a team of medical and dental professionals are redefining what’s possible in the treatment and restoration of patients with life-altering head and neck injuries.
The Maxillofacial Restoration Program team at NMCSD is meticulously rebuilding faces and jaws destroyed by trauma, disease, or congenital defects. And what they are doing is more than reconstructing physical form and function—they are restoring patients’ lives and putting warfighters back in the fight.
“During my time at Walter Reed from 2011 to 2017, head and neck injuries—facial injuries—were the second most common injury in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Cmdr. Daniel Hammer, program director and maxillofacial surgeon at NMCSD. “If you look at the current landscape with drone warfare and top-down trauma, head and neck injuries are only going to become more prevalent.”
The work being done by Hammer and his team at NMCSD is doing more than providing innovative care to patients; they are building a medical force that’s ready for the conflicts of tomorrow. They are ensuring that when our warfighters go into harm’s way, the team in San Diego will be standing by to provide the specialized care and treatment necessary to restore troops with head and neck injuries to full health and readiness.
By combining clinical expertise, 3D modeling, and virtual surgical planning, the team performs what is called "jaw-in-a-day" reconstruction—rebuilding a jaw by transplanting a segment of the patient's own leg bone (fibula) after placing dental implants into the bone and attaching prosthetic teeth in a single operation. Traditionally, the process of reconstructing a patient's jaw would take approximately two years and multiple procedures—a timeline not conducive with military readiness.
The results speak for themselves. Since November 2020, the program has treated more than 60 patients with a 94% return-to-duty rate for active-duty service members. Patients experience hospital stays of less than seven days, which is nearly half the national average of 12-13 days, and 100% are discharged without feeding tubes and walking unassisted within six weeks of surgery.
These outcomes are possible because of the program's integrated approach. The team is made up of highly skilled professionals from across nine clinical care pathways, including dental and maxillofacial prosthodontics, mental health and well-being, speech and language pathology, and anesthesia and pain management, working together seamlessly.
"Teamwork is really important in complex reconstruction," said Cmdr. Samuel Frasier, department chair for ear, nose, and throat. "There's good data showing that teamed approaches improve patient outcomes, improve surgeon well-being, and decrease burnout. One of the advantages of working in the military system is that we have a structure that encourages collaboration in a way that's easier than in the civilian world."
This tightly coordinated team collaborates across sixteen services and specialties from the earliest stages of a patient’s care plan, putting the patient at the center of everything they do.
"We built this team with the absolute focus on readiness and patient outcomes, and our program has done what few others in the world have done," said Hammer. "Having somebody stand up and walk without a walker one day after surgery. Having somebody take a sip of water two days after having their face completely transplanted. Having this accelerated track with patients getting their final teeth four months after surgery. We can innovate without the silos that often slow progress in the civilian sector, and that collaboration allows us to move faster and achieve better outcomes for our patients."
For patients, that means fewer surgeries, shorter recovery times, and, for warfighters, earlier return to duty. For the Defense Health Agency (DHA), it represents a model of how high-reliability practices, patient-centered care, and cross-service collaboration drive both improved outcomes and force readiness, which is part of DHA’s strategic vision for military medicine.
Lt. Col. Christopher Chang, an oral maxillofacial surgeon at Evans Army Community Hospital at Fort Carson, Colorado, said the DHA’s structure allows military surgeons across the services to learn from and contribute to one another.
“Something like this—where an Army surgeon and a Navy surgeon are able to work together across the services—that’s all part of the Defense Health Agency,” Chang said. “It’s good for us as surgeons and doctors to be able to take care of patients together.”
This cross-service collaboration exemplifies DHA’s commitment to meeting evolving healthcare challenges while ensuring readiness for future conflicts.
"Programs like this show how the DHA is transforming military medicine," said Rear Adm. Kevin Brown, director of Defense Health Network Pacific Rim, which has oversight of NMCSD. "They demonstrate that readiness and patient-centered care aren't competing priorities—they're complementary enablers of a shared mission. We are investing in warfighting readiness through innovative processes to accelerate a patient's recovery while also investing in critical skill sustainment of our medical force. This restores the health of our fighting force and ensures we are ready to save lives on the battlefield when we are needed most."
In an era where warfare is rapidly evolving and injuries are becoming more complex, the Maxillofacial Restoration Program demonstrates that one of military medicine's greatest strengths is its ability to unite diverse expertise around a single mission to achieve success.
By breaking down traditional medical silos and fostering collaboration across specialties and services, this program doesn't just rebuild faces; it transforms lives, restoring hope and readiness. For every warfighter who walks out of NMCSD ready to fight again and every patient who can face the world, military medicine is delivering on its promise to make extraordinary experiences ordinary and exceptional outcomes routine.
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About Naval Medical Center San Diego:
The mission of NMCSD is to provide a superior experience for our patients, staff, and warfighters. NMCSD employs more than 5,000 active-duty military personnel, civilians, and contractors in Southern California to deliver exceptional care afloat and ashore.
About Defense Health Network Pacific Rim:
Defense Health Network Pacific Rim (DHN-PR) is one of the Defense Health Agency’s nine networks of hospitals and clinics that deliver high-quality health care to more than 140,000 enrolled beneficiaries, supporting major operational units through the Indo-Pacific. The DHN-PR headquarters is located in San Diego, overseeing military hospitals and clinics along the U.S. West Coast and overseas in Guam and Japan.
| Date Taken: | 11.18.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 11.18.2025 08:39 |
| Story ID: | 551462 |
| Location: | SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 24 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Maxillofacial Program at NMCSD Restores Form, Function, and Readiness, by Regena Kowitz, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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