百花视频

Doctor of Dental Medicine

Competency-Based, Comprehensive Care Pedagogy

Teaching and learning in the DMD program are guided by a comprehensive clinical care model that emphasizes faculty-guided, student-provided, high-quality care of patients. Instruction early in the program is designed to establish foundational knowledge in the basic and behavioral sciences necessary for providing state-of-the-art care. Concurrently, students have early exposure to patient-centered activities through their Service Learning and chairside assisting assignments. This is followed by intensive experiences in preclinical simulations and laboratory techniques required to develop the skills needed for competent patient care. Students who successfully complete these experiences become eligible to provide treatment for patients.

As their technical, communication, and patient management skills develop, students are assigned patients having increasingly challenging needs. Students are assigned patients within the context of a Group Practice team. These teams function as small-group dental practices and consist of a group of students led by a faculty Group Practice Leader specifically trained to coach members of their team in all aspects of managing oral healthcare of their patients. The Group Practice approach emphasizes coordination of each aspect of the patient's oral healthcare with the patient's overall dental and physical health. Faculty not only take responsibility for teaching this holistic approach but also challenge students to engage in inquisitiveness, critical thinking, and self-evaluation.

Upon completion of the program, each predoctoral student will have demonstrated competency in providing oral healthcare within the scope of general dentistry. Competency refers to an individual with the requisite knowledge, skills, and values to independently and consistently provide quality care to patients for which they are responsible.

At the end of this program, the student will be able to:

Provide comprehensive oral healthcare that is patient centered and humanistic.

Provide such care in a logical, timely, and efficient manner within a healthcare team environment.

Demonstrate effective communication with their patients.

Formulate treatment plans that are appropriate for a novice general dentist.

Recognize case complexity, including when referrals may be needed.

Exhibit understanding of different models of oral healthcare delivery.

Self-evaluate their progress toward competency.

Conduct themselves in an ethical and professional manner consistent with the expectations of the profession.

Required Curriculum (4-year traditional program)

DMD Curriculum: Year 1

During the first year, students take in-depth courses in the basic biomedical and behavioral sciences that are foundational to dental practice. These courses are separate and distinct from the courses taught to medical students and are taught jointly by the faculties of the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. Also, students begin to take preclinical dental science courses in the first year that introduce dental terminology, the dental specialties, preventive dentistry, oral radiology, and dental assisting techniques, all in preparation for early exposure to clinical dentistry. Of particular note, the course SDM GD 510 Comprehensive Preclinical Dentistry includes scheduled experiences in dental assisting in the school's clinical areas. The first-year experience is completed by student participation in the APEX clerkship, where students function as interns in dental offices.

View the DMD Curriculum: Year 1 Courses

SDM GD 510 Comprehensive Preclinical Dentistry

SDM MB 511 Molecular Genetics

SDM MD 510 Anatomical Sciences I