General Practice Residency

The General Practice Residency (GPR) Program, sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), offers a one-year program that provides residents with postdoctoral clinical and didactic experiences. Based in the UPMC Montefiore Dental Center on the UPMC Presbyterian/Shadyside Campus, the program enrolls a combined total of three (3) residents each year. Residents completing the GPR earn a certificate of training.

Guided by the philosophy that oral health is an integral and interactive aspect of total health, residents engage in approximately nine months of comprehensive dental care. The remaining three months are spent on rotations in anesthesia, emergency medicine, head and neck radiology, and oral and maxillofacial surgery.

In addition to intensive exposure to hospital-based dentistry, the program provides clinical and didactic training across a range of dental specialties, including endodontics, periodontics, implant dentistry, prosthodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, oral pathology/oral medicine, orthodontics, pediatric dentistry and treating patients with special needs. Instruction is also provided in ancillary topics pertinent to dental practice, such as patient evaluation and physical examination, emergency medical care, inpatient care and hospital organization, and a multitude of other medical and dental subjects.

Throughout the program, residents focus on the attainment of several objectives, all of which are derived from the Commission on Dental Accreditation’s Standards for Advanced Education Programs in General Practice Residency. Upon completion of the program, General Practice residents are prepared to:

• Act as primary care providers, delivering emergency and comprehensive oral health care which is patient-focused and coordinated across disciplines;
• Use advanced dental treatment modalities;
• Direct health promotion and disease prevention activities;
• Function effectively in hospital and non-hospital health care environments;
• Function effectively as members of multi-disciplinary teams;
• Apply scientific principles to learning and oral health care, which entails thinking critically, making evidence/outcomes-based clinical decisions, and utilizing technology-based information retrieval systems;
• Engage in research, scientific writing, and presentations in order to advance dental medicine;
• Adopt a system of values that emphasizes lifelong learning, patient-centered care, exercise of professional ethics, adaptability, and acceptance of cultural diversity among patients and colleagues;
• Understand public oral health needs and practice community service.

While in the program, residents receive UPMC Health System’s postgraduate trainee stipend. Those interested in making application to the program may do so through the American Dental Education Association’s Postdoctoral Application Support Service (PASS). 

For additional information, please visit dental.pitt.edu/gpr

The advanced education in general dentistry program is accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA). The Commission is a specialized accrediting body recognized by the United States Department of Education. The Commission on Dental Accreditation can be contacted at 312-440-4653, or at 211 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60611. The Commission’s web address is http://www.ada.org/100.aspx.