Advanced Education General Dentistry Courses

The didactic curriculum for both the one- and two-year dental residency programs consist of required and elective course work.

Advanced Endodontics

• Advanced concepts of endodontic therapy
• Enhance skills in diagnosing endodontic problems
• Biology and anatomy of the root canal system
• Proper use of dental materials in endodontic therapy
• The patient population in the general dentistry program allows the resident to receive significant training in this clinical area. Each resident is expected to perform the endodontic therapy when indicated for assigned patients. In addition, the faculty member in endodontics is available weekly for consultation and assistance. A three-day course is given pre-clinically to allow the resident to become competent in endodontic techniques prior to clinical encounters.

Advanced Oral Pathology

• Current working knowledge of the pathogenesis and expression of selected abnormalities and disease affecting the oral, head and neck region
• Correlation of basic pathologic changes with clinical findings, changes and symptomatology
• Methodical approach to clinical diagnosis of orofacial abnormalities and the formulation of a differential diagnosis
• Clinicopathologic correlation will be used to help participants further develop methodical approaches to differential diagnosis and patient work-up

Biology of the Periodontium

• Advanced concepts in periodontology related to anatomy and physiology, etiology, pathogenesis, therapy, regeneration techniques, prevention, and study design.

Biostatistics

• Methodologies for summarizing evidence, planning research, interpreting data and achieving efficiency
• Concepts and techniques in summarizing and displaying data in order to obtain relevant information
• Randomness and chance variation, and the concept of probability as a quantification of chance or amount of uncertainty
• Usage of confidence interval and its derivation under normal distribution
• Concept of formal statistical test of hypothesis
• Concept of causal inference and the need of randomization in an experiment in order to establish causality
• Rationale of decomposing means into main effects and interactions when there are more than one factor, understand the partitioning of variability via sums of squares and the formal assessment of factor effects via f-test, the concept of correlation as a measure of association, and the linear regression procedure, and should understand the concept of contingency table, and the chi square test of association between two categorical variables
• Participant should understand the meaning of effect size, and the relationship: test of significance = effect size* sample size, and should understand the procedure of Binomial Effect Size Display for interpreting the practical importance of an effect size, and understand the rationale of meta-analysis, a formal quantitative procedure for literature synthesis.

Case Presentations and Treatment Planning

• Each resident will give a formal case presentation at weekly seminar sessions.

Clinical Cariology

• Scientific principles of the caries process related to the practice of clinical dentistry

Control of Pain and Anxiety in Dentistry

• Three-day course in the use of local anesthetic techniques of pain control in dental practice, the administration of nitrous oxide analgesia, the selection and use of analgesics in perioperative pain control
• Complex biopsychosocial issues involved in pain and anxiety response
• Legal issues surrounding administration of conscious sedation

Craniofacial Growth and Development

• Complexity of the growth processes in the craniofacial region
• Current concepts and research in this field and their clinical implications. Many of the lectures will be given by guest faculty of institutions outside of the Rochester area.

Basic Dental Implantology Course

• Familiarize new graduate students with basic biologic and technical aspects of osseointegrated implants.

Esthetic Dentistry

• Enhance knowledge and skills in adhesive dentistry.
• Treatment planning of complex restorative cases with cosmetic restorations
• Restoring and sealing porcelain veneers, direct bonding, placing posterior direct bonded composite restorations,splinting teeth and fabricate fiber reinforced bridges, fabricating and place bonded post and cores and preparing and delivering posterior porcelain restorations

Ethics Seminar

• Complexity of the ethical, moral, and legal considerations that influence clinical decision-making in dentistry

General Practice Presentation Seminar

• Conducting a literature review on a particular dental topic
• Develop critical judgment when reading dental research articles.
• Prepare a well organized oral report based upon divergent literature citations.
• Develop experience in speaking before a group.
• Acquire detailed knowledge about a particular area of dentistry.

Head and Neck Anatomy

• Gross and cross-sectional anatomy, standard, and sectional (CT and MRI) radiographic images and common development anomalies.

Instructional Design

• Basics of instructional design, development, and evaluation
• Srategies of instructional design as they apply to the creation and presentation of instruction

Literature Review

• With faculty mentor resident will review current literature and moderate discussion on selected topics.

Oral Epidemiology I: Introduction and Principles

• Principles and methods of epidemiology
• Conduct a simple epidemiologic study and to critically assess the dental epidemiologic literature.
• Epidemiologic methods used to identify individuals at high risk to oral diseases of current public health importance.

Oral Epidemiology II: Research Design and Analysis

• Basics of research design with framework for development of a research protocol. This framework will serve to foster critical thinking regarding published studies as well as guide students in their own research project.
• Basic concepts in research design related to: development of research questions, selection of a study design, strengths and weaknesses of different study designs, causal inference, issues that relate to bias, measurement and ethical issues.

Oral Implantology

• Historical overview of the developments of dental implants, the histopathology at the tissue-implant interface, treatment planning from the surgical and prosthetic perspectives using diagnostic imaging and surgical guides, site preparation using different types of grafting techniques, the various implant components and when to use them, functional and esthetic prosthetic considerations, complications that can occur and how to handle them, an ability to provide long term maintenance both from the biologic and mechanical viewpoint.

Orthodontics for the General Dentist

• Basic diagnosis, treatment planning and mechanotherapy of orthodontics
• Understand which cases are appropriate to treat and which cases to refer to a specialist
• Includes a rotation in the UREDC orthodontic department for one week

Pediatric Dentistry

• Management and treatment of dental conditions as presented in a pediatric patient
• Behavioral management techniques
• Appropriately administer local anesthetics to the pediatric patient
• Diagnosing need for placement of stainless steel crowns
• Preventive therapy for a pediatric patient.

Periodontology Seminar

• Etiology, signs and symptoms of acute periodontal abscesses, perio-endo infections, ANUG, AHGS, acute gingivitis and acute periodontitis
• Diagnose and record periodontal disease by case type and to learn about instrumentation
• Anatomical and physiological basis for the etiology of periodontal disease and its management
• Local systematic factors which initiate and effect the course of periodontal disease
• Differences between trauma from occlusal and periodontal adaption to occlusal force
• Theories regarding the additive effects of inflammation and occlusal loading
• Rudiments of scaling, root planing, plaque control instructions, patient education and motivation
• Systematic and topical antimicrobial therapy as an adjunct to comprehensive periodontal treatment
• Relationship between endodontic, orthodontic, oral surgical, restorative and prosthodontic procedures and periodontal status
• Indications and contraindications for periodontal flaps
• Basic flap design and management
• Indications and contraindications of synthetic, heterogeneous and autogenous bone grafts
• Guided tissue regeneration

Physical Diagnosis Course

• Obtain patient histories, perform a basic physical evaluation and assess the overall health status of patients.

Practice Management

• Participants will become familiar with all aspects of dental practice

Pre-Clinical Endodontics

• Concepts of endodontic therapy
• Access, diagnose, clean, shape and obturate a root canal system
• Understand when treatment of RCS should be referred.

Pre-Clinical Oral Surgery

• Policy for oral surgery, familiarity with instrumentation, use appropriate surgical technique to minimize trauma to soft and neurological tissue, obtain basic skills for proper suturing technique and properly use surgical instruments.

Pre-Clinical Course in Operative Dentistry

• Materials in the clinic, equipment and devices, concepts of cavity design and pulp protection.

Pre-Clinical Course in Periodontology

• Appropriate use for all periodontal examination and surgical instruments
• Complete a comprehensive periodontal examination
• Analyze results from a comprehensive periodontal examination,complete chart documentation used for a periodontal examination
• Principles of periodontal disease and its treatment.

Pre-Clinical Course in Prosthodontics

• Primary considerations in treatment planning, complete dentures, and the general principles for removable partial denture design.
• Proper placement of rest preparations and guide planes on teeth in removable partial denture fabrication
• Principles of tooth preparation for porcelain-fused-to-metal and full-cast crowns.
• Handling alginate, zinc phosphate and polycarboxylate cements, dental stone and plaster.
• Principles of endodontic tooth treatment planning and restoration and the basic principles of post, pin and core placement for endodontically treated teeth.

Research Seminar

• Prepare and present a research protocol and research results
• Facilitate and encourage continuous progress of a research project
• Stimulate critical evaluation of research protocols and results

Research Workshop

• To understand the requirements for research and research related aspects in the 2-year AEGD program, to select a research topic and a mentor and to develop an initial concept of a research question.

Scientific Basis of Safe Dental Practice

• Understand the risks of many of the materials, equipment and procedures performed in a dental office, be knowledgeable of means to prevent and reduce their potential harm.

Special Care I - Medically Compromised Patients

• Diagnosis and dental treatment planning for patients who have medical problems including: hypertension and ischemic heart disease, pregnancy, bone marrow transplantation and chemotherapy, diabetes, adrenal gland disorders and corticosteroid therapy, bleeding disorders, infective endocarditis, renal dialysis and end stage renal disease, head and neck radiation, HIV/AIDS, and psychiatric disorders.

Special Care II - Geriatrics

• Concepts pertinent to geriatric dentistry related to: theories of aging, demographics, and their relevance to future dental practice, changes with age in the areas of nutrition, medicine, psychiatry, pharmacology, and mental health.

Special Care III- Developmentally Disabled

• Case management for patients with developmental disabilities
• Common birth defects, legal and ethical issues, genetic developmental disabilities, craniofacial deformities, outpatient sedation as a management modality for the DD dental patient, managing the developmentally disabled child and developmentally disabled adult in the dental office

Temporomandibular Joint Disorders

• Morphology and physiology of the normal and abnormal temporomandibular joint
• Basic physiology of the muscles of mastication
• Osteogenesis and pathoses of the jaw bones and temporomandibular joint
• Diagnostic skills for limited neurological evaluation as well as ear, nose and throat examinations
• Differentially diagnose basic forms of headache in the head and neck area
• Components of clinical examination of patients with facial pain

TMJ Student Presentation Seminar Series

• Identify the critical steps in the understanding of TMJ disorders
• TMJ anatomy in health and disease
• Differential diagnosis of other head and neck pains and headache
• Evaluate various treatment modalities in the management of TMJ pain and dysfunction.

Research

• The University of Rochester Eastman Dental Center provides an excellent opportunity for people to participate in research activities. In the two-year program, research is required. In the one-year program, if a resident had designated that research was a major area of interest, and this did not conflict with other interests, research time will be scheduled as an elective.

Summer Lecture Series

• Introduce the teaching faculty, convey specific information about certain aspects of the program and clinic operations, and give an overview of the scope and format for the didactic courses and clinical rotations offered during the program year.
• The Summer Lecture Series includes: infection control, patient relations, quality assurance, chart documentation, standards of care in radiology, oral pathology, oral surgery, periodontology, pediatric dentistry, geriatric dentistry, temporomandibular joint disorder, orthodontics, preventive dentistry, dental emergency care, medical emergency care, developmentally disabled patients, xerostomia, intra-oral photography, prescription writing, case presentation, dental laboratory relations, treatment planning, library services, evidence based dentistry and behavioral sciences. In addition, the Summer Lecture Series will include a course in Physical Diagnosis.