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Objectives Our objectives are to characterize the incidents in the department of oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) in comparison with the whole hospital incidents including other dental specialty. Materials and methods We analysed 1185 cases during 5 years, which were collected from the database of the incident reporting system of Fukuoka Dental College Medical and Dental Hospital, and compared the frequencies, severity and causes of incidents between OMFS department and the whole hospital. Severity level of incident (level 0, 1, 2, 3a, 3b, 4 and 5) was classified according to the incident severity classification system recommended by the National University Hospital Council of Japan) (level 0 and 1; no patient harm; level 2 to 5; patient undergoing any harm). Results During 5 years, total 1185 cases of incidents were reported in the whole hospital while 155 cases (13%) of them occurred in the OMFS department. Many of severe incidents, level 3a and level 3b, occurred in the OMFS department rather than in the other dental specialties. Over sixty percent of the incident-related factors were due to the lack of confirmation, following immature skill. Incorrect order of X-ray, treatment-related injury, missing or fractured equipment, remaining of foreign body or tooth, ingesting of dental object frequently occurred. Conclusion For patient safety of dentistry, it is important to keep interdisciplinary communication before practice on patients. We must report our incidents without hesitation, which will lead to the improvement of dental quality.