The Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency program (AEGD), located in the Lindsey Hopkins Technical Education Center, is unique among general dentistry residencies in the United States. Although not based in a dental college or a hospital, it offers the advantages of both in a superior postdoctoral year of education in general dentistry.

The clinic was established in 1946, to provide dental treatment to the medically indigent population and continuing education for the volunteer dentists. Since the clinic is located within a Miami-Dade County public school facility, the dental assisting students (in a post-high school adult education program) receive their hands-on clinical training assisting the member-dentists and the AEGD residents.

Established as a General Practice Residency (GPR) in 1986, the residency became the fourth of our successful programs; indigent care, training assistants, training lab tech’s, and sharing our knowledge with our newest colleagues. It has been continuing its growth as an AEGD program since 1992.

The DCDRC is affiliated with other institutions: the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, where many of our clinic members hold appointments on the volunteer adjunct faculty; UM/Jackson Memorial Hospital Medical Center (UM/JMH, the county hospital), where our residents do their hospital rotations; and the University of Florida College of Dentistry’s Hialeah Dental Clinic where our clinic faculty hold appointments on the volunteer adjunct faculty, and with which there is a mutual rotation of residents.

In addition, we participate in various cooperative activities with other institutions, e.g. the annual residents’ course in Nitrous Oxide Sedation and Oral Anxiolysis is taught to all the south Florida general practice residents every summer by faculty members at the Nova Southeastern University College of Dental Medicine.

The AEGD curriculum is designed to prepare the resident to manage the total range of general dental practice through instruction and experience in the delivery of care to a wide range of patients of all ages, ambulatory, hospitalized, healthy and ill. The program offers the opportunity to:

1. Refine, advance and/or acquire new knowledge and skills in clinical dentistry.
2. Improve understanding of the relationship of medical disorders to oral disease and its treatment.
3. Learn to interact effectively with other healthcare professionals in the hospital setting and else ware.
4. Develop the skills and judgment to provide comprehensive care to medically compromised patients.

The clinic is organized around 14 study groups which each meet one day per month. They encompass the entire range of general dental practice: general operative dentistry; fixed partial prosthetics; removable partial prosthetics; complete dentures; æsthetic dentistry; endodontics; periodontics; orthodontics; oral surgery; TMJ disorders; implantology (surgical and prosthetic); diagnosis and treatment planning; and two pediatric dentistry groups . Rotations in oral surgery and anesthesia are at UM/JMH. The primary clinical practice is at DCDRC.

Applications are handled through the Postdoctoral Application Support Service (PASS) of the American Dental Education Association (ADEA). The standardized PASS application form is available online, at American dental colleges or directly from ADEA at 1625 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Suite 101, Washington DC 20036-2210.

Successful candidates begin their year on the first business day in July.