Restorative Dentistry and Comprehensive Care: Programs
AEGD
Endodontics
Comprehensive Care Program (CCP)
When will students enter this program?
What disciplines of dentistry are represented?
This 85-chair clinic, divided into four modules or clinics, currently serves our first professional students from the summer of their second year until graduation. Prior to their formal entrance to the CCP program, our students are directly involved with patient care as early as the fall of their second year of training as part of their Oral Diagnosis and Treatment Planning course. All disciplines of dentistry, with the exception of oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthodontics, and pediatric dentistry, are represented in this system. (Attention to these departments is provided outside this program.)
Students receive individual curricular schedules during this time, which support exposure to all disciplines of the profession to include patient care, departmental rotations, community-based care; and, in their fourth year, "selective" opportunities.
What is a selective?
The selective courses here at the SDM offer fourth year students the prospect of individualizing their own clinical curriculum. These courses provide information in topics ranging from advanced specialty-focused patient care to clinical and non-clinical research. Students are encouraged to broaden their understanding in areas of specific interest to their future endeavors within these courses. Selectives often provide the student with the opportunity to network with program directors of specialty programs. This exposure may thereby uncover the true daily workings of the specific discipline to the student. This may prove to be an invaluable experience when the student is considering a specialty program in his/her future endeavors.
What are the responsibilities of the faculty and staff assigned to this program?
Clinically, "teams" of faculty--consisting of two general dentists, and one faculty representative from each of the specialty disciplines of endodontics, periodontics, and prosthodontics--work together with students to provide comprehensive care to our patients.
General dentists identified as "team leaders" provide the communication and leadership necessary to permit this unit to function properly.
This system also utilizes four staff members as patient care coordinators. One of these staff members is assigned to each of the four modules to identify patient care issues to team leaders as they relate to continuance of care, proper scheduling, accuracy of chart entries, and fee submission.
What are some of the student advantages of this system?
Since this program's implementation, a marked increase in both student patient procedures, as well as clinical board performance, has been noted. Faculty to student mentoring relationships also have flourished. Our students seem to enjoy treating their patients in this streamlined environment in which specialists are close by to offer services to patients and educational input to students. Students benefit from the unique opportunity to listen and learn from various specialists as they discuss their patients' treatment options.
Faculty
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Dr. Marnie Oakley, Chair |
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Dr. Jean O'Donnell, Vice Chair Departmental Curriculum Director 3019 Salk Annex 3501 Terrace Street Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261 (412) 648-8672 Fax: (412) 383-7796 |
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Dr. Christine Wankiiri-Hale, Team Leader 3027 Salk Annex 3501 Terrace Street Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261 (412) 648-8093 Fax: (412) 383-7796 |
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Dr. Andrew Nigra, Team
Leader 3074 Salk Annex 3501 Terrace Street Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261 (412) 648-8655 Fax: (412) 383-7796 |
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Dr. Michael Dobos, Team Leader 3026 Salk Annex 3501 Terrace Street Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261 (412) 648-9882 Fax: (412) 383-7796 |
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Dr. Karen Nedwick, Team Leader B21A Salk Annex 3501 Terrace Street Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261 (412) 648-9953 Fax: (412) 383-7796 |