Dr. Aragon Ellwanger
Frontline Lead Surgeon & Medical Director
In August 2022, Major Dr. Aragon Ellwanger separated from the US Air Force after 13 years of service as an oral maxillofacial surgeon (OMFS). With more than a decade of surgical trauma experience including wartime injuries at a Level One trauma center in San Antonio, TX he has performed more than 13,000 procedures, many of them high-risk surgeries, and treated more than 2,000 patients. While being stationed in South Korea, he established an oral maxillofacial surgery clinic, earning a Commendation Medal from the Air Force. During his tour of duty in Japan, he performed the region’s first allogenic nerve transplant surgery.
Since 2021 Dr. Ellwanger has been stationed in Biloxi, MS where in addition to continued surgical practice he teaches oral and maxillofacial surgery to residents with a faculty appointment from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. He has published in academic journals and is an accomplished lecturer in a broad variety of topics including anesthesia, life support, surgical airway management, ballistic injuries, and infections.
In addition to his professional expertise and contributions, Dr. Ellwanger has extensive experience over the past decade with medical and dental missions to The Philippines and Cambodia.
Dr. Ellwanger graduated magna cum laude from Brigham Young University with a B.S. in biochemistry and a minor in psychology and from the University of California San Francisco School of Dentistry, earning his doctor of dental surgery. Upon joining the US Air Force, he completed advanced education in general dentistry (AEGD) at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, DC and was accepted into the highly competitive four year oral and maxillofacial residency program at San Antonio’s Lackland Air Force Base.
This week in Ukraine, I evaluated a young man who’s partial jaw was blown off from artillery fire. He will wake up to a reality where he may never eat solid foods again because hospitals in Ukraine simply do not have the basic equipment needed to reconstruct it.
— Aragon Ellwanger (@AragonEllwanger) November 5, 2022