Competencies ~ General Practice Residency

The General Practice Residency Program provides one-and two-year didactic and clinical experience in general dentistry in a hospital setting. While the program provides the structure and opportunity to achieve these competencies, it is the resident's responsibility to obtain documentation showing that these skills have been obtained. Most of this documentation will be completed on standard forms by full- or part-time faculty members. At the conclusion of the one-year residency program, each resident should have fulfilled a set of competencies as outlined below.

Documentation, information management and quality improvement

• Evaluate scientific literature and use information in the literature in making professional decisions.
• Maintain a patient record system that facilitates the retrieval and analysis of the
  process and outcomes of patient treatment.
• Modify the treatment plan, if indicated, based on therapeutic outcomes, unexpected
  circumstances or the patient's individual needs.

Pediatric Dentistry

• Perform pediatric pulpal therapy.
• Restore intra and extra-coronal defects in the primary dentition.
• Perform uncomplicated surgical procedures on pediatric patients.
• Use pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic behavior management skills with the pediatric patient.

Pulpal therapy

• Diagnose and treat pain of pulpal origin, to include performing uncomplicated, non- surgical endodontic therapy.
• Recognize and manage uncomplicated endodontic situations and emergencies.
• Manage complex endodontic therapy and complications.

Restoration of teeth

• Restore single teeth using a functionally acceptable range of materials and methods.
• Place restorations and perform techniques to enhance facial esthetics.
• Restore intra and extra-oral coronal defects
• Restore endodontically treated teeth.

Temporomandibular Dysfunction and Occlusion

• Diagnose and manage a patient's occlusion.
• Treat minor occlusal abnormalities and arch space problems using space maintenance and other orthodontic appliances.
• Diagnose and non-surgically treat uncomplicated Temporomandibular disorders.

Replacement of teeth

• Treat patients with missing teeth requiring uncomplicated removable and/or fixed
  prostheses.
• Communicate care design with laboratory technicians and evaluate the resultant
  prostheses.
• Recognize and manage cases requiring complicated prostheses.
• Treat patients with missing teeth using uncomplicated dental implant restorations.
• Manage the surgical component of dental implant systems.
• Assess and manage complications of dental implants.

Treatment of medical and dental emergencies

• Anticipate, diagnose and provide initial treatment and follow-up management for medical emergencies that may occur during dental treatment.
• Diagnose and manage dental emergencies, performing uncomplicated or reversible
  techniques where indicated
• Provide initial treatment and then manage patients with extra-oral and complex oral-
  facial emergencies and infections.
• Perform initial treatment and management of extra-oral facial trauma.
• Treat intraoral hard and soft tissue lesions of traumatic origin.
• Manage intraoral soft tissue lesions of nontraumatic origin.

Periodontal Therapy

• Diagnose periodontal disease demonstrating periodontal examination and utilizing radiographs.
• Treat and manage mild and moderate periodontal disease, including non-surgical and surgical techniques.
• Recognize and manage periodontal emergencies and complications of periodontal
  treatment.
• Evaluate the results of periodontal treatment and establish and monitor a periodontal maintenance program.

Obtain informed consent

• Explain and discuss with patients, parents or guardians of patients, who lack decisional capacity, findings, diagnoses, treatment options, realistic treatment expectations, patient responsibilities, time requirements, sequence of treatment, estimated fees and payment responsibilities, in order to establish therapeutic alliance between the patient and/or parent or guardian, and care provider.

Oral Pathology, Oral Surgery and Hospital Protocol

• Perform surgical and nonsurgical extraction of erupted teeth.
• Perform uncomplicated pre-prosthetic surgery
• Perform biopsies of oral tissues.
• Recognize and manage surgical emergencies and complications of intraoral surgical treatment.
• Extract uncomplicated impacted wisdom teeth.
• Diagnose and manage common oral pathological abnormalities.
• Provide dental treatment in an operating room.
• Provide comprehensive management and care for individual inpatients or same day
  surgery patients from the beginning to the end of a patient's hospital experience.
• Request and respond to requests for consultations.
• Identify needs and make referrals to appropriate health care providers for the
  treatment of physiologic, psychologic and social problems presented by dental
  patients.
• Perform dental consultations and request medical consultations for hospitalized
  patients and patients in other health care settings.

Planning and providing multidisciplinary comprehensive care

• Integrate multiple disciplines into an individualized, comprehensive, sequenced
  treatment plan using diagnostic, risk assessment and prognostic information for
  patients with complex needs.
• Develop and carry out dental treatment plans for special needs patients in a manner
  that considers and integrates those patients’ medical, psychological and social needs.
• Provide dental care as part of an interprofessional health care team.
• Diagnose and manage oral manifestations of systemic disease.

Patient assessment and diagnosis

• Obtain and interpret a patient’s chief complaint, history of present illness, medical, dental, family and cultural background, social histories, and review of systems.
• Obtain and interpret appropriate laboratory and radiographic data and obtain additional diagnostic information through consultation with other health care
  providers.
• Perform a history and physical examination and collect other data to establish a risk
  assessment for use in the development of a dental treatment plan.
  53. Establish diagnosis and risk assessment incorporating historical, laboratory, radiographic and clinical findings.

Practice management

• Function as a patient’s primary oral health care provider.
• Treat patients efficiently in a dental practice setting
• Use and implement accepted sterilization, disinfection, universal precautions and
  occupational hazard prevention procedures in the practice of dentistry.
• Practice and promote the principles of jurisprudence and ethics in the practice of
  dentistry and in relationships with patients, personnel and colleagues.
• Provide patient care by working effectively with allied dental personnel including
  performing sit down, fourhanded dentistry.

Medical risk assessment

• Select and use assessment techniques to arrive at a differential, provisional and
  definitive diagnoses for patients with complex needs.
• Treat patients with a broad variety of acute and chronic systemic disorders and social difficulties, including patients with special needs.

Promoting oral and systemic health and disease prevention

• Use accepted prevention strategies such as oral hygiene instruction, nutritional education, and pharmacologic intervention to help patients maintain and improve their oral and systemic health.