I would describe the general practice residency program at the University of Louisville School of Dentistry as an urban base program providing both comprehensive and emergency dental care to a diverse population in both private practice setting in a hospital environment.
So there's a great diversity of patients, you get to see a lot of things that you might not be able to see in a more rural area.
This broad population includes a high volume of dentally and medically complex individuals, who provide our residents with training in areas of General Dentistry with a focus on oral surgery and advanced restorative procedures.
I get to see these things in the ER and in the firstcare. downstairs in the university level hospital because it's a trauma one, level one hospital,
A strong emphasis is placed on assessing diagnosis and planning for the provision of multidisciplinary oral health care. The majority of the residence time is spent providing dental care in all areas of General Dentistry. This includes fixed and removable prosthodontics ,periodontal surgery, endodontics, oral Surgery, emergency oral care and advanced restorative dentistry, which includes implant placement and restoration.
As a new resident, you start off by kind of picking up where the old residents left off.
The first week, we sort of overlap with the old residents, and they sort of show us the ropes. They give us a week of training, doing on call training going down to the ER.
You just get acquainted with the patients that have had treatment by previous providers. And then you also have opportunity to take on your own new patients.
And then after that, it's up to you. And so you come and you make the treatment plans. You take all the knowledge that you learned in dental school, and you actually apply it.
Approximately 35 weeks of our one year training program is spent providing clinical care and all aspects of General Dentistry.
You're treated as a doctor and you make the decisions. You're the one treating people you're the one making these decisions.
While our faculty provide mentoring and guidance in all clinical areas. They also promote a sense of autonomy once an individual resident has demonstrated an appropriate skill level and competence.
They're always willing to answer. They're always willing to go walk through it with you. They're willing to stay late to go through things with you.
They're all very committed to working with you and helping you understand the process. We're really getting one on one up close and personal experience.
Technology is all around us. We have a well integrated electronic health record with digital radiography, including CBCT. We utilize rotary endo for endodontic cases and have a complete serax system for the scanning and milling of same day crowns.
There are a lot of new and exciting technologies that I didn't really see them in dental school.
We have access to implant planning software and associated 3D printing capabilities. We currently plan our implant cases digitally and complete them using surgical guides. We're already doing dentures, implant restoration crowns and night guards completely digital. The culture of our program is dedicated to providing a caring and supporting environment in which teamwork and collaboration are valued.
There are six GPR residents, we all work very closely together. There's great cohesion among all the residents, we're all really committed to working together. And we're all really focused with giving patients the best possible care that we can. I love Louisville because it's kind of a perfect sized city. You're never at a loss of things to do. There's always something that you can do here. There are tons of restaurants here in Louisville, just about anything that you get want.
It's a place where we feel welcome, where we feel like we're part of the community. Anybody is welcome.
We value individuals with a passion for lifelong learning that appreciate and thrive in a team environment. Our faculty is focused on providing quality patient care and have a commitment to be their very best as I challenge and guide you to become a more knowledgeable and skilled oral health care provider.
You'll learn because you're doing it yourself. I mean, yes, you might struggle for the first few times. But we have so many people here to help. But you have the knowledge, this is the time where you can you can really apply it.
