General Practice Residency

Return to: School of Dental Medicine

The General Practice Residency (GPR) Program, co-sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Graduate Medical Education, 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 hospital-based rotations in internal medicine, anesthesia, emergency medicine, 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. These include endodontics, periodontics, implant dentistry, prosthodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, oral pathology/oral medicine, community outreach and patients with complex medical conditions. 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. The residents attend regular journal club and cross-disciplinary case conferences. The program also attends one professional development conference per year. 

Residents will treat patients in the UPMC Dental Center at Montefiore Hospital, The University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine and the Catholic Charities of Pittsburgh Free Health Care Center Dental Clinic.

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 providers of dental care, 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;
• 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 and benefits package. 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 general practice dental residency 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.