Surgical treatment of diseases of the oral and maxillo-facial region under local anaesthesia is quite commonly restricted by limited patient compliance. Medical hypnosis could be an alternative to treatment under pharmacological sedation. With this method both auto-suggestive and other suggestive procedures are used for anxiolysis, relaxation, sedation and analgesia of the patient. The purpose of this paper was to see whether or not there could be any potential for this treatment when operating on oral and maxillofacial patients. During a 1-year trial period, 209 operations under combined local anaesthesia/medical hypnosis were carried out on 174 non-preselected patients between the ages of 13 and 87 years. The surgical range covered oral, plastic and reconstructive, oncological, septic and trauma operations. Medical hypnosis turned out to be a reliable and standardisable method with high patient compliance. Remarkable improvements in treatment conditions for both patient and surgeons were achieved in 93% of cases.