Dentistry - General Practice Residency program | Advocate Illinois Masonic | Chicago

PASS ID #536

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General practice dental residency

The nine-resident, nationally recognized General Practice Dental Residency at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center has been in existence since 1970 and over 325 residents have received extensive additional training in general dentistry as well as in all the dental specialties. The GPR Program emphasizes the management and treatment of Special Needs, and underserved patients including children and adults with developmental disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, the medically challenged, pediatric, anxious, and geriatric in the outpatient clinic. Many of these patients are treated with conscious sedation and general anesthesia in the outpatient clinic and in the operating room. Residents also see a wide variety of patients in the Emergency Department, on rotation in Oral Surgery at John H. Stroger Hospital, Chicago, IL, and on the mobile dental vans.

Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, a member hospital of Advocate Health, the fifth largest health care system in the U.S., is one of the state’s largest, most comprehensive medical centers, offering a wide range of medical specialties, and a commitment to clinical expertise and education. Advocate Illinois Masonic is a Level I trauma, 326 bed teaching hospital with over 1200 active physicians and 225 residents. The Advocate Illinois Masonic Department of Dentistry is a full, free-standing clinical department, equal in parity with the other clinical departments of the hospital. The Department Chair, the Program Directors, Section Heads, and faculty members who represent all of the dental specialties are responsible for the teaching and clinical aspects of the program.

Dentistry and the GPR, Dental Anesthesiology and the OMFS Programs at Advocate Illinois Masonic are considered integral components of the institution. Program residents provide many services to the hospital including ED coverage and consultations to cardiology, anesthesia, and radiation oncology. Residents have access to many educational opportunities provided by many hospital departments including rotations in Internal Medicine, in Anesthesia and in the Emergency Department. Residents also rotate through the outpatient Oral Surgery Clinic at John H. Stroger Hospital.

The Department of Dentistry also sponsors a two resident per year, three-year CODA accredited Dental Anesthesiology Residency Program and two PGY-1 OMFS Internship positions in collaboration with the post-graduate OMFS program at John H. Stroger Cook County Hospital. The Dental Anesthesiology residents receive intensive, comprehensive training in providing the full range of anesthesia services for pain and anxiety control for many patients including pediatric, special needs, anxious and geriatric patients. GPR residents work closely with Dental Anesthesiology residents to develop appropriate treatment plans and provide safe, effective anesthesia services for optimal delivery of dental treatment. The OMFS interns support the outpatient and inpatient practices of Oral and Maxillofacial Head and Neck Associates (OMHNA), which is the private practice entity of the Stroger OMFS faculty. The OMFS interns/residents provide support to the GPR residents in the outpatient clinic as well as in the ED.

View more about the General Practice Dental Residency program

Mission statement

The mission of the Advocate Illinois Masonic Dental Residency Program is to prepare residents for the practice of general dentistry through education and exposure to the broadest range of clinical and didactic experiences. The program emphasizes the treatment of underserved populations with limited access to dental care in multiple clinical settings including the outpatient Dental Center, in the operating room as inpatients and on the mobile dental vans.

Purpose

The GPR program provides dental graduates with advanced training in the diagnosis and delivery of dental treatment to healthy as well as medically compromised and developmentally disabled individuals. Residents will also learn more complex treatment in all phases of general dentistry. The program also trains residents to function effectively in various hospital rotations such as emergency medicine, anesthesia, internal medicine, and oral surgery and provides comprehensive dental treatment in the operating room. Residents will manage in-patient and same-day surgery cases from admission through discharge. What makes our GPR program unique is the clinical experience and the evidence-based approach to patient care.

Our residents treat patients of all ages from very diverse backgrounds, which provides a wide range of clinical experiences. Many of these patients are treated in the dental clinic under IV sedation, or general anesthesia, or in the operating room under general anesthesia. The two operatory, fully equipped dental vans travel to sites in Chicago and the metro region to provide treatment to children, special needs adults, the indigent, and geriatric patients, so that residents can treat an underserved population.

Goals for the General Practice Residency Advocate Illinois Masonic

The overall goals of the Advocate Illinois Masonic residency program are to prepare residents for the practice of general dentistry through education and exposure to the broadest range of clinical and didactic experiences. The program emphasizes an evidence-based approach to dental treatment through critical review of the dental literature, treatment of underserved populations with limited access to dental care, special patient dentistry, and providing oral health care in a hospital setting. This program is fully accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA), and all policies, procedures, and activities must comply with CODA Standards and Advocate Graduate Medical Education (AGME) policies.

The goals of this program include the preparation of the graduate to:

  • Act as a primary care provider for individuals and groups of patients which will include providing emergency and multidisciplinary comprehensive patient focused oral health care that is coordinated by the general dentist and include the promotion of sound oral health and the prevention of disease.
  • Develop appropriate dental and behavioral management treatment plans to be able to provide multidisciplinary oral health care for a wide variety of patients with special needs and medical challenges taking into consideration patient’s medical, dental, social, behavioral, and financial histories.
  • Function effectively within the hospital while managing patients in the Emergency Department, the Operating Room or providing consultations to other services while on rotation in Anesthesia, Emergency Department, or Hospitalist. Service or Oral Surgery in the OMFS Clinic at John H. Stroger Hospital.
  • Function effectively within interdisciplinary health care teams and learn how to obtain from or provide consultations to medical and dental colleagues.
  • Utilize critical thinking, evidence based clinical decision-making and literature searches to provide optimal patient care and contribute to ongoing personal development.
  • Understand the oral health needs of underserved communities/patient populations and be prepared to participate in community/public health-based health care service.
  • Be able to apply the principles of patient and practice management and quality/safety improvement initiatives to effectively provide oral health care.
  • Apply the values of professional ethics, cultural diversity awareness and acceptance, life-long learning and patient centered care to their careers in dentistry.

Program description

We offer:

  • Advanced training in the diagnosis and delivery of dental treatment to healthy, as well as developmentally disabled and medically compromised individuals
  • Training in complex case management in all phases of general dentistry
  • Training in IV sedation/GA and hospital rotations in emergency medicine, anesthesia, internal medicine, and oral surgery
  • Management of in patient and day surgery cases from admission through discharge
  • Evidence-based approach to patient care, Journal Club
  • Experience in providing dental treatment to underserved populations on a fully equipped mobile dental vans
  • Extensive faculty representing all the specialties
  • On-campus housing
  • Advanced educational experiences in the following areas:
    • Medical risk assessment
    • Diagnosis – oral/dental
    • Treatment planning and providing comprehensive oral health care
    • Obtaining informed consent
    • Promoting oral and systemic health and disease prevention
    • Sedation, pain, and anxiety control
    • Restorative dentistry
    • Fixed and removable prosthetics
    • Periodontal therapy
    • Endodontic therapy
    • Pediatric dentistry
    • Orthodontic therapy
    • Oral surgery
    • Treatment of dental emergencies
    • Special patient care
    • Treatment of underserved populations, medically compromised patients
    • Providing dental treatment in a hospital setting, i.e., emergency room, operating room, at bedside
    • Request and respond to medical consults in other hospital departments, such as Radiation Oncology, Trauma, Cardiology
    • Ethics and professionalism
    • Implant surgery and prosthetics