Dental Advanced Education in General Dentistry
12-MP Residency Program
The Advanced Education in General Dentistry 12-Months Program (AEGD 12-MP) is a one-year training program that provides professional education at the post-doctorate level. The AEGD 12-MP is sponsored and located at the United States Army Dental Activity (DENTAC) at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The Fort Campbell AEGD 12-MP is accredited by the American Dental Association Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA). The Fort Campbell AEGD 12-MP has been granted the accreditation classification: “approval without reporting requirements.” This classification indicates that an educational program achieves or exceeds the basic requirements for accreditation.
It encompasses supervised training and clinical experience in all major specialty areas of dental practice to eight Dental Residents. It is designed to train competent, productive, efficient clinicians that are able to skillfully and confidently manage patients requiring complex multi-disciplinary treatment. Of equal importance is the objective of training Student/Residents to be well-rounded, outstanding officers in the U.S. Army. The program emphasizes a practical approach in both clinical and didactic training. The Student/Resident is provided with considerable experience and close guidance from a faculty of highly trained specialists. Student/Residents are chosen from among the most outstanding dental graduates in the nation. They are expected to demonstrate the interest and enthusiasm necessary to derive benefit from the program. Participating in the program represents an exceptional opportunity for the recent graduate to develop to the maximum, both as a dentist and as an Army Officer. Clinical training is conducted at Kuhn Dental Clinic serving as the primary clinic and didactic training site for the AEGD 12-MP.
Training in Oral Surgery, Anesthesia, and Hospital Dentistry is conducted at Blanchfield Army Community Hospital. Laboratory support for the AEGD 12-MP is provided by the Kuhn Dental Clinic Laboratory and the Area Dental Laboratory located at Fort Gordon, Georgia. Student/Residents are granted a Certificate of Completion upon successful completion of all of the AEGD 12-MP requirements. Student/Residents meeting the program’s stringent standards for graduation are also awarded the 9D Area of Concentration (AOC) suffix to their primary 63A SSI (Special Skills Identifier).
Program Goals
The goal of the AEGD12-MP is 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. This 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 beneficiaries of the Army Health Care System. The goals of this program are derived from CODA’s Standards for Advanced Education Programs in General Dentistry.
The goals of the AEGD 12-Months Program are as follows:
- Enable the Student/Resident to 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. Provide dental care at a post-doctoral level.
- Plan and provide multidisciplinary oral health care for a wide variety of patients including patients with special needs.
- 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; prepare residents to engage in research, scientific writing and presentation to advance dental medicine.
- Utilize the values of professional ethics, lifelong learning, patient centered care, adaptability, and acceptance of cultural diversity in professional practice: understand the oral health needs of communities and engage in community service.
- To enhance the Student/Resident’s ability to make judgments in examination, diagnosis, treatment planning and decision making during the course of patient treatment, and to assess post treatment outcomes.
- To improve the Student/Resident’s ability to interact with all health care practitioners in providing for the patient’s total health care needs.
- To enhance the Student/Resident’s understanding of, and experience in, the efficient delivery of quality dentistry, so that he/she may effectively manage a modern practice, to include supervision and utilization of auxiliaries, development of practice productivity, and understanding of efficient scheduling concepts.
- Prepare the Student/Resident to function effectively and independently as an Army Dental Officer in any location and duty position to which he or she may be assigned. Prepare the Student/Resident to assume positions of increasing responsibility within the Army Dental care System.
Program Philosophy
The program is a comprehensive learning experience involving training in all disciplines of dental practice. While the program provides both clinical and didactic training experiences during the academic year, training is predominantly oriented towards clinical-based experiences. These experiences challenge and improve the Student/Resident’s abilities to provide total patient treatment and continuity of care to an assigned patient population. A Student/Resident is assigned overall responsibility for the care of a select group of patients, and is evaluated on his or her ability to provide for their comprehensive treatment needs.
The clinical phase of the program consists of rotations through all of the specialties of dentistry. It is designed to emphasize the basic general dentistry concepts of total patient treatment and continuity of care. The Student/Resident is expected to provide total dental treatment, within his/her capabilities, and to coordinate referrals to the appropriate specialists for those treatment needs that are beyond his/her capabilities.
Patient screening, selection and assignments are directed toward providing the Student/Resident with patients requiring a broad range of dental treatment. Isolated, independent rotations have been avoided wherever possible. The more interdependent specialties, fixed and removable prosthodontics, endodontics and periodontics, have been scheduled into an integrated rotation to encourage and facilitate the application of these concepts. Mentors have been given sufficient flexibility to enable the Student/Resident to schedule patients from other services during rotation through his/her specialty service; this will allow continuity of care.
The didactic component is an important aspect of the program. It provides the Student/Resident with a broad academic background from which sound clinical judgments can be made regarding diagnosis, treatment planning, and the selection of appropriate treatment modalities for the patient.he didactic component is an important aspect of the program. It provides the Student/Resident with a broad academic background from which sound clinical judgments can be made regarding diagnosis, treatment planning, and the selection of appropriate treatment modalities for the patient. The didactic phase is scheduled on a regular basis and includes lectures, seminars, journal clubs, patient care conferences and treatment planning conferences. Student residents must complete special projects throughout the training year as well. These assignments improve and refine the Student/Resident’s communication skills, and academically enrich the Student/Resident’s learning experiences.
Training experiences are selected, sequenced and structured in a manner which facilitates the Student/Resident’s efforts towards meeting the standards for training outcomes as outlined in the program’s “Statements of Competency”. Student resident certification for graduation is contingent upon the student resident meeting or exceeding each of these outcomes and completing all assigned projects in a satisfactory manner.