General Practice Residency

The MHealth/University of Minnesota Medical Center (UMMC) General Practice Residency 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 population groups, with an emphasis on the medically, cognitively, and physically challenged patient.

The General Practice Residency is a 12-month, CODA-accredited, hospital-based residency program that leads to a Certificate from the University of Minnesota Medical Center. In addition to instruction and experience in all areas of dentistry, residents learn to function effectively in the hospital environment. They become adept at providing care for traumatic dental injuries and infections, delivering care in the operating room, and providing in-patient consults and supportive care for patients undergoing complex medical procedures including organ transplants and treatment for oral cancer. Residents also gain extensive experience in managing after-hours dental emergencies.

The clinical component of the program is supported by a didactic program that includes formal courses, seminars and lectures in both dental and medical topics, including surgical placement of dental implants, management of TMD/Orofacial Pain patients, geriatric dentistry, practice management, oral medicine, radiology, conscious sedation, history and physical examination, and practice management. Literature reviews and case presentation/treatment planning conferences are scheduled on a semi-monthly basis throughout the year. Residents also participate in monthly multi-disciplinary treatment planning seminars with other specialty programs, and quarterly hospital dentistry-focused conferences with Oral Maxillofacial Surgery and Pediatric Dentistry residents. 

Over the course of the year Residents are assigned to off-service rotations in Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine (2 weeks each), Anesthesiology (3 weeks), and Oral Surgery (4 weeks). Each of these rotations provides residents with the opportunity to observe the delivery of health care from the perspective of these disciplines and to actively participate as a member of an interdisciplinary health care team.