Orientation Information

The Purpose and Goals – Philosophy

The Advanced Education Program in General Dentistry is an educational program designed to provide training beyond the level of pre-doctoral education in oral health care, using applied basic and behavioral sciences. Education in this program is based on the concept that oral health is an integral and interactive part of total health. The program is designed to expand the scope and depth of the graduates’ knowledge and skills to enable them to provide comprehensive oral health care to a wide range of population groups.

The goals of the one-year program should include preparation of the graduate to:

1. Act as a primary care provider for individuals and groups of patients. This includes: providing emergency and multidisciplinary comprehensive oral health care; providing patient focused care that is coordinated by the general practitioner; directing health promotion and disease prevention activities, and using advanced dental treatment modalities.
2. Plan and provide multidisciplinary oral health care for a wide variety of patients including patients with special needs.
3. Manage the delivery of oral health care by applying concepts of patient and practice management and quality improvement that are responsive to a dynamic health care environment.
4. Function effectively and efficiently in multiple health care environments within interdisciplinary health care teams.
5. Apply scientific principles to learning and oral health care. This includes using critical thinking, evidence or outcomes-based clinical decision-making and technology-based information retrieval systems.
6. Utilize the values of professional ethics, lifelong learning, patient centered care, adaptability, and acceptance of cultural diversity in professional practice.
7. Understand the oral health needs of communities and engage in community service.

Two Year Program Goals and Objectives

The two year AEGD program incorporates all the goals and objectives of the one year program and is designed to expand the educational opportunities offered by:

1. gaining experience in managing highly complex comprehensive dental care;
2. improving clinic management skills;
3. pursuing areas of individual concentration, e.g.: temporomandibular disorders, public health dentistry, special patient care, etc;
4. *providing residents with an interdisciplinary graduate foundation in the biological and clinical sciences for careers in dental research and/or education and the practice of dentistry;
5. *gaining teaching experience, performing original research and earning an optional Masters of Science degree if indicated.

* This is only the Masters tract. Not all Year II residents are enrolled in Masters coursework or do research.

Note: In order to achieve the above, a personal camera and computer are strongly recommended for each resident. The program has an intraoral video camera to aid in case documentation.