Advanced Education in General Dentistry

Program Overview

The Advanced Education Program in General Dentistry (AEGD) is a one-year program with an optional 2nd year. This is a clinical and academic program that is focused on developing a better-informed practitioner, who is broadly trained, patient focused and community based in their approach to primary health care delivery. The resident's stipend for the academic year is $30,000. There is no tuition or fees associated with this program in which the residents are responsible.

Close up view of the MUSC Dental Clinic Building

The program was granted "initial accreditation" by the ADA Commission on Dental Accreditation, a specialized accrediting body recognized by the Council on Post-Secondary Accreditation, in September of 2010. The first class of four residents began on July 1, 2011.

The resident's "home" is the dedicated AEGD comprehensive care clinic located within the University's new James B. Edwards College of Dental Medicine Patient Care Facility. The residents are also scheduled to spend several weeks during the year at community clinics located in locally underserved areas; however, the bulk of their time will be spent within the AEGD Clinic itself.

  • Learn new techniques and improve their existing skills
  • Be competent in providing primary dental care for a wide variety of patients including those with Special Health Care Needs in the Special Needs Clinic
  • Be capable of managing the dental care of patients with complex medical, dental and social conditions
  • Improve their knowledge, skills, judgment, and problem solving abilities using evidence-based decisions augmented with the use of technology-based information systems
  • Develop professional relationship skills with multiple health care providers to promote the enhancement of their patient's care through collaborative measures
  • Understand the needs of local communities and engage in community service using their professional knowledge and skills, develop an ethical patient-centered philosophy of care in which professional adaptability and acceptance of cultural diversity allows improved access to health care.

The opportunities for professional growth within this program are meant to enrich the resident's global perspective, insight and personal growth in ways that will allow them to:

  • Act as a primary care provider for individuals and groups of patients
  • Plan and provide multidisciplinary oral health care for a wide variety of patients including patients with Special Health Care Needs
  • 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 in multiple health care environments within interdisciplinary health care teams
  • Apply scientific principles to learning and oral health care
  • Understand the oral health needs of communities and engage in community services
  • Understand, demonstrate and appropriately utilize professional values, including the use of:
    • Critical thinking using evidence-based decision-making
    • Ethical as well as professional reasoning in health care decision-making
    • Providing patient focused care coordinated by the general practitioner and
    • Directing health promotion and disease prevention activities using advanced dental treatment modalities
  • Develop a philosophy of patient centered care, which includes an adaptability to and acceptance of cultural diversity in all professional practice
  • Become involved in voluntary professional services or organizations including direct professional services, health care education and improving access to care for underserved populations

Doctors and Residents with a patient

New dental graduates are expected to be competent in most basic areas of clinical dentistry. During their residency, the breadth, depth and number of those procedures in which they are competent should become expanded. They should demonstrate general improvement in all areas.

Upon completion, residents should be able to perform all of the following procedures with the skill, knowledge and judgment to a level of competency.

  • Operative Dentistry
    • Restore single teeth with a wide range of materials and method
    • Place restorations and perform techniques to enhance patient's facial esthetics
    • Restore endodontically treated teeth
  • Replacement of Teeth Using Fixed Prosthodontics
    • Treat patients with missing teeth requiring uncomplicated fixed restorations
    • Communicate case design with laboratory technicians and evaluate the resultant prostheses
  • Replacement of Teeth Using Removable Prosthodontics
    • Treat patients with missing teeth requiring routine removable restorations
    • Communicate case design with laboratory technicians and evaluate the resultant prostheses
  • Endodontic Therapy
    • Diagnose and treat pain of pulpal origin
    • Perform uncomplicated non-surgical anterior endodontic therapy
    • Perform uncomplicated non-surgical posterior endodontic therapy
    • Manage post-treatment endodontic complications
  • Oral Surgery
    • Perform nonsurgical extraction of teeth
    • Perform uncomplicated surgical extraction of teeth
    • Perform uncomplicated pre-prosthetic surgery
    • Perform biopsies of oral tissues
    • Manage patients with complications related to intra-oral surgical procedures
  • Evaluation and Treatment of Dental Emergencies
    • Treat patients with intra-oral dental emergencies and infections
    • Anticipate, diagnose and provide initial treatment and follow-up management for medical emergencies that may occur during dental treatment
  • Pain and Anxiety Control Utilizing Behavioral and Pharmacological Techniques
    • Provide control of pain and anxiety in the conscious patient through the use of psychological interventions, behavior management techniques, local anesthesia, and oral and nitrous oxide anxiolytic techniques
    • Use pharmacologic agents in the management of the anxious dental patients
    • Prevent, recognize, and manage complications related to use and interactions of drugs, local anesthesia, and anxiolytics
  • Periodontal Therapy
    • Diagnose and treat early and moderate periodontal disease using non-surgical and surgical procedures
    • Manage advanced periodontal disease
    • Perform uncomplicated preprosthetic periodontal procedures
    • Evaluate the results of periodontal treatment and establish and monitor a periodontal maintenance program
  • Managing Certain Clinical Health Issues
    • Through the use of patient focused coordinated care
    • Appropriate consultations and referrals as well as treatment within their own skill levels should be accomplished well beyond the levels resulting from their pre-doctoral training

    • They must be able to competently manage:
  • Medical Emergencies
    • Anticipate, diagnose, and provide initial treatment and follow-up management for medical emergencies that may occur during dental treatment
  • Implants
    • Perform and maintain uncomplicated endosseous implant restorations
    • Restore a wide variety of implant retained and implant supported restorations
  • Oral Mucosal Diseases
    • Diagnose and manage oral manifestations of systemic disease
    • Diagnose and manage common oral pathological abnormalities
  • Temporomandibular Disorders and Orofacial Pain
    • Diagnose, provide palliative initial care for and direct the patient toward long term management of uncomplicated orofacial pain and TMD disorders with appropriate professional interdisciplinary care
  • Occlusal Disorders
    • Understand occlusal principles of the normal dentition, be able to identify variants and abnormalities in a patient’s occlusion, understand how to utilize articulator mounted casts and occlusal registrations to evaluate a patient’s occlusion
    • Be able to identify and manage the need for interdisciplinary treatment when indicated

Admission Criteria for Program

It is the policy of the Medical University of South Carolina not to discriminate on the basis of race, creed, national origin or sex in its admissions, employment and other educational activities and programs. 

Two Residents with a Patient

Applications for admission to the program can be submitted through the American Dental Education Association's Postdoctoral Application Support Service (PASS) program. To apply to the program, the applicant must have passed Part I of the National Boards and be fluent in English.

Applications must be received by November 1 to be considered for acceptance by the program which begins the following academic year. Qualified applicants will be invited for an interview at MUSC. To enroll in the AEGD program, the applicant must have been selected by the MUSC AEGD admissions committee and have accepted the position. They must have passed Parts I and II of the National Dental Board Examination, graduated from a U.S. or Canadian dental school and earned a D.M.D/D.D.S. degree. These requirements are subject to change, and such changes will be reflected on the ADEA PASS webpage.