Special(ized) Delivery

Residency Enables General Dentists to Broaden Services

There’s no place like home for Dr. Matthew Carter.
The School of Dentistry resident has always known that when he’s finished with school, he’s heading back to his roots in Adel, Ga.

And once he begins his practice, he wants to meet as many of his patients’ needs as possible, particularly considering the dearth of specialists in the area.

“I do want to be close to my family, so naturally, I want to return there and practice,” said Dr. Carter. “But I want to be able to treat my patients and not have to send them to Atlanta to see specialists,” he says.

A new School of Dentistry residency program will optimize his ability to do just that.

The Advanced Education in General Dentistry program, which began in July, provides advanced training in general and specialized oral health care, enhancing clinical skills and knowledge beyond the four years of dental school.

“This program will teach me about many areas of dentistry, allowing me to keep my patients with me,” says Dr. Carter. “That’s the wonderful benefit of the program and the main reason I chose it.”

The program recently got a shot in the arm with a $1.3 million U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration grant.

“The grant will be used for stipends and salaries, as well as teleconferencing and travel expenses for the residents,” said Dr. James Barenie, associate dean for academic affairs and advanced education.
The one-year program covers endodontics, implant dentistry, oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthodontics, pediatric dentistry and periodontics.

“Graduates will be more comfortable and familiar with specialties in dentistry so they can handle cases that otherwise would have to be referred elsewhere,” said Dr. Jan Mitchell, program director and associate professor of oral rehabilitation. “The benchmark is to train high-quality general dentists to manage the care of patients with complex restorative needs.”

The program will eventually include two-week rotations in eight health sites in Georgia. “Sending the residents to these sites will give them an excellent hands-on experience,” said Dr. Barenie. “Overall, they will get a taste of each specialty and become more advanced in diagnostic skills as well as treatment-planning skills.”

“MCG now offers eight of the 10 residency programs accredited by the Council on Dental Education,” said School of Dentistry Dean Connie Drisko. “Though we hope to eventually add public health and radiology residencies, we saw a more immediate need for the Advanced Education in General Dentistry program. Georgia is a large state, and many of our dentists go into small areas where specialists are hard to find. This program takes them beyond the basic skills they learn in dental school so they can address more complicated, advanced cases.”

The school already offers a general practice residency, “but it focuses more on surgery and medically compromised patients,” said Dr. Barenie. “It is usually more hospital-oriented.”

The programs share several seminars and workshops. But while general practice residents complete emergency room and anesthesia rotations, for example, residents of the new program focus on treatment-planning and complex dental cases.

“We spent 80 percent of our time in clinic,” Dr. Mitchell said. “We have one year to teach specific procedures, while specialists have two to four years to go in depth. We concentrate on learning new techniques as well as which procedure is best for a particular patient.”

The program also benefits MCG patients, Dr. Drisko noted. “This residency program allows us to take care of the people with problems that surpass the capabilities of our dental students, but aren’t so complicated that they need to see a specialist for all of their dental care,” she said. “It broadens our patient pool.”

-- Amy Connell and Kim Miller