General Dentistry Practice Residency
Contact: Frank J. Romano, DMD
Program Director, General Practice Residency, Department of Dentistry
Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) offers a one-year residency in all phases of dentistry, accredited by The Commission on Dental Accreditation of the American Dental Association. This certificate program is designed to develop essential clinical skills, attitudes, judgment and abilities related to the comprehensive practice of dentistry. The program is also structured to provide training in the management of medically, physically, and intellectually disabled patients in a hospital environment. In addition to comprehensive training in all disciplines of dentistry, the dental resident will participate in restorative dentistry and oral surgical procedures in the operating room. The resident will be on off-service rotations in YNHH's Department of Internal Medicine [2 weeks], Anesthesiology (2 weeks), Emergency Medicine (1 week), YNHH's Pediatric Dental Department (2 weeks in Pediatric Dental Clinic), and Oral Maxiollfacial Surgery (2 weeks).
Our patient base provides ample opportunities for gaining or expanding the resident's experience in disciplines such as implant dentistry, fixed and removable prosthodontics, esthetic dentistry, pain management beyond the use of local anesthetics and more. In addition to the department's clinic setting, the resident will be able to provide comprehensive dental care in the operating room and work with physicians and other health care providers throughout the hospital. Clinical training is supplemented with an array of lectures, seminars and conferences throughout the year. The resident will have the privilege of working with a variety of dental and medical specialists in both clinical and classroom settings.
The GPR program is clinically oriented, with 80% of the resident's time devoted to providing dental care. The remaining time is devoted to lectures, medical rotation and various non-clinical didactic experiences.
How to Apply to YNHH’s Dental Residency Program
YNHH Dental Residency Program participates in the Postdoctoral Dental Matching Program (“the Match”) for its four PGY 1 General Practice Residency positions. Interested applicants must submit an application and all supporting documents online through the Postdoctoral Application Support Service (PASS). American Dental Education Association (ADEA) PASS applicants who seek positions that use the Match program must register through both organizations, using the ADEA PASS portal. After applying, applicants may be invited to participate in the interview process. No offers are made during the interview period. Programs and applicants create an order of preference, resulting in a “Rank Order List.” The ranking is then submitted through the Match and a comparison of the lists are used to place students into positions. For more information about the Postdoctoral Dental Matching process, please visit www.natmatch.com
General Dentistry Practice Residency Curriculum
Our challenging didactic curriculum components include: physical diagnosis; weekly conferences and seminars; monthly grand rounds and case discussions; literature review and case-based learning.
Periodontal Program
This program exposes the general dentistry resident to periodontics from a diagnostic and therapeutic perspective, instilling the need to integrate periodontics into generalized treatment planning. Residents treat all periodontal patients under the direct supervision of licensed and board-certified periodontists. Residents obtain full mouth radiographs, diagnostic casts, and create treatment plans with the attending Periodontist. Residents may carry out initial patient preparation in the absence of a periodontist, and patients requiring subsequent periodontal surgery will be treated by the resident and periodontist together. Additional material covered includes non-surgical periodontal therapy, antibiotic and chemotherapeutic agents. The introduction of surgical therapy will include apically repositioned flap, modified Widman flap, gingival grafts, osseous resection, gingivectomy, osseous grafting, and crown lengthening procedures.
The objectives of the Periodontal Program are to develop in-depth ability to diagnose and coordinate the treatment of periodontal diseases. The resident is expected to gain knowledge of currently available treatment modalities and to develop skills to execute periodontal procedures. The resident will gain additional knowledge in diagnosis and treatment planning, integrating periodontics, general dentistry, orthodontics, prosthodontics and implant dentistry.
Endodontic Program
General Dentistry residents are expected to learn how to diagnose pulpal disease and orofacial pain, including concise methods of testing for pulpal pathology and accurate interpretation of test results. The resident will become familiar with conditions that mimic endodontic disease and the appropriate treatment of endodontic disease.
Prosthodontic Program
In the Prosthodontic Program, the resident treats patients requiring fixed and removable prostheses. The treatment plan developed by the resident will be carried out under the guidance of an attending prosthodontist or general dentist. The educational objectives are to familiarize the resident with various prosthodontic principles and procedures in fixed and removable prosthodontics; to teach the clinical application of different dental materials used in prosthodontics; and to learn to manage patients who may be geriatric, medically compromised, physically compromised or have special needs.
Oral Surgery Program
General dentistry residents are expected to perform a variety of oral surgical procedures in the dental clinic and are encouraged to participate on oral and maxillofacial surgery operating room cases at Yale New Haven Hospital. The educational objectives include proficiency in exodontia, oro-facial wound repair; treatment of acute and chronic infections of dental origin, the initial and definitive management of dentofacial trauma; surgical management of the medically compromised patient; and diagnosis and treatment of pathologic lesions of the soft and hard tissues of the mouth.
Special Needs Program
Yale New Haven Hospital is dedicated to preventative and restorative dentistry for the physical and intellectually disabled patients. We are committed in particularly in the areas of caries restoration, infection control, oral surgery, dental prophylaxis and general anesthesia in the operating room. We perform general dentistry operating room procedures weekly.