AEGD Program 1 year with optional 2nd year

Program Description

Lutheran Medical Center pioneered the concept that Advanced Education in General Dentistry Residency Programs (AEGD) can occur in community health centers. Today, there are sixty AEGD resident positions available through the Lutheran Family Health Centers in Brooklyn, and in affiliated regional sites in New York City, the greater New York metropolitan area, upstate New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, Maryland, Tennessee, Mississippi, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska, and Hawai`i. Each region has a main site and a cluster of affiliated sites. For example, the Medical Center is the main site for other sites and facilities in the New York metropolitan area. The AEGD program is accredited for one year with an optional accredited second year.

The Sunset Park Family Health Center in Brooklyn is the model for the clinical structure of the program. All of the affiliated centers and sites follow a standardized clinical program based on this model. Residents receive their advanced clinical training at community health centers, group practices, and hospitals affiliated with the program, not a dental school. Residents typically spend four days per week providing comprehensive clinical dentistry to outpatients in an ambulatory care setting. These centers are generally primary care, outpatient facilities located in medically underserved areas. The centers provide surrounding communities with access to a full range of medical and dental services because they are often multi-specialty, interdisciplinary group practices. Residents participate in the core curriculum and interactive television technology links all of the regions to the weekly lectures and seminars.

Residents generally are assigned to one site for the entire year of the program. Usually sites accept only one resident, but larger ones may accept two or more. Each site resembles an interdisciplinary primary care group practice. Facilities are modern, well-equipped settings and the staffs are skilled in contemporary practice methods. The dental director and a mix of general practitioners and specialists guide residents throughout their training. The centers provide residents a comprehensive patient pool, chairside dental assistant, operatory, and the most up-to-date dental materials and supplies. The resident becomes a peer member of a group practice. The environment offers exposure to the most contemporary concepts of quality practice management and evaluation of practice outcomes.

AEGD residents become part of a primary health care team dedicated to providing comprehensive oral health care of the highest quality to communities of diverse age, race, religious, ethnic, and economic heritages. They gain immense experience in general clinical dentistry. Graduates of this program become confident practitioners with bright futures in private practice, community health, specialty training or academic dentistry.

View AEGD Competency and Proficiency Statements