University Health Lakewood Medical Center (UH LMC) sponsors a one-year general practice residency in dentistry. It is fully accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation of the American Dental Association. The program is housed in the hospital on the UH LMC campus in Kansas City, Missouri.
The vision and goals of the general practice residency program is to provide residents advanced training in the full use the resources of the hospital as a site for the practice of dentistry, and, in doing so, provide experiences in management of patients with medical, mental and physical problems that would challenge the routine delivery of dental treatment in a timely fashion. In order to accomplish this, the resident receives instruction and experience providing dental treatment experience to advance their skills beyond their dental school training in preparation to achieve the following goals:
- Residents will improve their general dentistry speed, confidence, and skills by treating patients in a clinic setting.
- Residents will have the opportunity to advance their abilities in all areas of general dentistry, including restorative, oral surgery, endodontics, implants, pediatric dentistry and periodontics. Residents will also have experiences with IV sedation and operating room dentistry.
Program goals
- Act as a limited referral primary care provider for individuals and groups of patients. This includes providing emergency and multidisciplinary comprehensive oral healthcare; providing patient-focused care that is coordinated by the general practitioner; directing health promotion and disease prevention activities; and using advanced dental treatment modalities.
- Plan and provide multidisciplinary oral healthcare for a wide variety of patients, including patients with special needs.
- Manage the delivery of oral healthcare by applying concepts of patient and practice management and quality improvement that are responsive to a dynamic healthcare environment.
- Function effectively within the hospital, function effectively within interdisciplinary healthcare teams and other healthcare environments, and use skills developed in the program to promote an understanding of patient's systemic diseases and relationship to oral health. Pursue individual areas of interest and achieve career goals.
- Apply scientific principles to learning and oral healthcare. This includes using critical thinking, evidence- or outcomes-based clinical decision-making, and technology-based information retrieval systems.
- Utilize the values of professional ethics, lifelong learning, patient-centered care, adaptability and acceptance of cultural diversity in professional practice.
- Understand the oral health needs of communities, engage in community service and provide services within the limits of the state in which they practice.