Introduction: Head and neck cancer is highly prevalent, but most tumors are identified late, compromising treatment, prognosis and patient survival. That is why it is important to include the Head and Neck Surgery discipline in the curriculum of the medicine course, so that trained professionals are able and safe to diagnose these conditions early, thus improving teaching in this area. This study was to analyze the teaching of head and neck surgery in medical schools in the city of Fortaleza, Ceará. Development: This is an observational cross-sectional study in which a structured questionnaire was adopted to the coordinators of each college, in which the institution, curriculum and internship were analyzed. It was observed that only one of the four institutions has a structured HNS service. Only 6% of the total number of interns who completed the medical course attended the HNS during the internship in 2019. Conclusion: It can be observed that there are gaps in the teaching of the specialty of HNS, from the base of academic training, to the surgical services, showing little emphasis aimed at that specialty.