Program Description
The General Practice Residency (GPR) Program, co-sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), offers a one-year program that provides residents with postdoctoral clinical and didactic experiences. Based in the Pitt Dental Medicine Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Prosthodontics at Montefiore and on the UPMC Presbyterian/Shadyside Campus, the program enrolls a combined total of three (3) residents each year. Residents completing the GPR earn a Certificate of Training.
Program Philosophy
Guided by the philosophy that oral health is an integral and interactive aspect of total health, residents engage in approximately nine months of comprehensive dental care. The remaining three months are spent on rotations in anesthesia, emergency medicine, internal medicine, and oral and maxillofacial surgery.
Curriculum and Content
Beyond intensive exposure to hospital-based dentistry, the program provides clinical and didactic training across a range of dental specialties, including endodontics, periodontics, implant dentistry, prosthodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, oral pathology/oral medicine, head and neck oncology patients, transplant and cardiothoracic surgery patients and treating patients with complex medical histories. Instruction is also provided in ancillary topics pertinent to dental practice, such as patient evaluation and physical examination, emergency medical care, treatment of traumatic dental injuries, inpatient care and hospital organization, and a multitude of other medical and dental subjects.
In addition to their practice in the Advanced General Dentistry Clinic and various specialty clinics at Pitt Dental Medicine, the residents will rotate through Pitt Dental Medicine at UPMC Montefiore, UPMC Presbyterian and UPMC Mercy Hospital Emergency Departments, and the Pitt Dental Medicine Center for Patients with Special Needs (CPSN).
Didactic instruction, journal club, treatment planning conferences, interdisciplinary conferences and resident portfolios round out the non-clinical portion of the program. Research is encouraged and supported, but not a formal requirement of the program.
Opportunities for resident-driven continuing education are offered virtually and off-site at local and national dental meetings to encourage engagement in organized dentistry and career-long education.
Residents will be required to provide 24-hour, on-call emergency services as scheduled by the residency director. Short-range and long-range pagers will be provided to each resident. Residents are not often required to remain onsitein-house, but usually typically take call from home.
Goals and Objectives of the Program
The GPR Program is 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 residents’ knowledge and skills to enable them to provide comprehensive oral health care to a wide range of population groups. The goals of this program are derived from the Commission on Dental Accreditation’s (CODA) Standards for Advanced Education Programs in General Practice Residency. In addition to adherence to CODA standards, the program aims to provide each resident with an experience unique to them and their carer plans. Much of the didactic and clinical experiences can be designed to meet specific resident goals.
Specific to the UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside Dental Center General Practice ResidencyPitt Dental Medicine GPR Program, the program will prepare each resident to:
- Triage and treat a variety of emergency dental conditions;
- Plan and provide multidisciplinary, comprehensive oral health care using advanced dental treatment modalities;
- Direct and promote disease prevention activities;
- Manage the delivery of oral health care to patients with complex histories;
- Provide consultative evaluations and treatments to patients admitted within the UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside Hospital system who are referred to our service, including:
• Surgical (cardiothoracic, orthopedic, etc.) clearance;
• Transplant clearance;
• Medical service and ICU patients; and
• Trauma patients; - Apply concepts of patient and practice management and quality improvement that are responsive to a dynamic health care environment;
- Function effectively within interdisciplinary health care teams;
- Apply scientific principles to learning and oral healthcare, including critical thinking, evidence/outcomes-based clinical decision making, and the se of technology-based information retrieval systems;
- Utilize the values of professional ethics, life-long learning, patient centered care, and adaptability and acceptance of cultural diversity in a professional practice; and
- Understand the needs of communities at large and engage in community service.
Supervision and Progressive Responsibility
The GPR Program provides residents with more autonomy in their practice than they experienced in dental school. Residents must be supervised either directly or indirectly, with direct supervision immediately available (i.e., the attending dentist is immediately available to provide direct supervision). Much of the learning process and the development of progressive responsibility is based on teaching by example under supervision. Supervision and close observation provide the program director with the ability to ascertain when a resident is ready and able to assume progressive autonomy and responsibility. Each resident must know the limits of their scope of authority and the circumstances under which they are permitted to act with conditional independence, as well as their skill set and experience. Attending doctors always maintain professionalism within this relationship and will encourage residents to practice with increasing autonomy while freely seeking guidance from the attending at any time the resident believes it to be helpful to the care of the patient. This relationship is designed to be reciprocal and fundamental to the residents’ successful progression.
Application Process
Those interested in making application to the program may do so through the American Dental Education Association’s Postdoctoral Application Support Service (PASS).
For additional information about the application process, please contact:
Andrea Ford
Coordinator, UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside Hospital
OMFS/GPR Dental Residency Programs
fordam@upmc.edu
412-648-6801
Application Deadline
The GPR Program has a rolling application deadline and applications are accepted throughout the year.
Benefits & Stipend
While in the program, residents receive UPMC Health System’s postgraduate trainee stipend. All first-year medical and dental residents have their stipend and benefits provided at the UPMC GME PGY-1 level. For detailed information, please visit the UPMC Graduate Medical Education (GME) Benefits and Stipends website.