About the Department

Program Objectives

The overall objectives of the program are in accordance with the standards described by the Commission on Dental Accreditation, which state that the AEGD residency will prepare the graduate to:

• Act as a primary care provider for individuals and groups of patients. This includes: providing emergency and multidisciplinary comprehensive oral health care; 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 health care for a wide variety of patients including patients with special needs.  Develop advanced levels of patient assessment, diagnosis and treatment planning employing development of patient rapport and the process of informed consent.
• Manage the delivery of oral health care by applying concepts of patient and practice management and quality improvement that are responsive to a dynamic health care environment.
• Function effectively and efficiently in multiple health care environments within interdisciplinary health care teams.
• Apply scientific principles to learning and oral health care. 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 and engage in community service through treatment of patients with special needs and emergency care of less fortunate patients.
• Interest in, and appreciation for, the dental literature while developing a lifelong commitment to continuing education.

Program Philosophy

The program is a comprehensive learning experience involving training in the major disciplines of general dental practice.  Predominantly clinically oriented, it includes a didactic component of approximately twenty percent (20%).

Program Goals

The one-year AEGD program goals are to expand the scope and depth of the dentist's clinical skills and didactic knowledge in order to be able to effectively provide comprehensive patient care to a wide range of population groups. Accordingly, the program is structured to allow residents to exercise increasingly independent judgment beyond that expected in the pre-doctoral curriculum.

The emphasis of the program is on diagnosis and treatment planning as well as coordination of clinical care of a large number of patients with multidisciplinary treatment plans.

Predominantly clinically oriented, it includes a didactic component of approximately fifteen percent of scheduled time. Graduates of the AEGD are awarded a certificate of completion from Texas A&M University School of Dentistry.