Doctor of Dental Medicine
Competency-Based, Comprehensive Care Pedagogy
Teaching and learning in the DMD program are guided by a comprehensive clinical care model that emphasizes faculty-guided, student-provided, high-quality care of patients. Instruction early in the program is designed to establish foundational knowledge in the basic and behavioral sciences necessary for providing state-of-the-art care. Concurrently, students have early exposure to patient-centered activities through their Service Learning and chairside assisting assignments. This is followed by intensive experiences in preclinical simulations and laboratory techniques required to develop the skills needed for competent patient care. Students who successfully complete these experiences become eligible to provide treatment for patients.
As their technical, communication, and patient management skills develop, students are assigned patients having increasingly challenging needs. Students are assigned patients within the context of a Group Practice team. These teams function as small-group dental practices and consist of a group of students led by a faculty Group Practice Leader specifically trained to coach members of their team in all aspects of managing oral healthcare of their patients. The Group Practice approach emphasizes coordination of each aspect of the patient’s oral healthcare with the patient’s overall dental and physical health. Faculty not only take responsibility for teaching this holistic approach but also challenge students to engage in inquisitiveness, critical thinking, and self-evaluation.
Upon completion of the program, each predoctoral student will have demonstrated competency in providing oral healthcare within the scope of general dentistry. Competency refers to an individual with the requisite knowledge, skills, and values to independently and consistently provide quality care to patients for which they are responsible.
At the end of this program, the student will be able to:
- Provide comprehensive oral healthcare that is patient centered and humanistic.
- Provide such care in a logical, timely, and efficient manner within a healthcare team environment.
- Demonstrate effective communication with their patients.
- Formulate treatment plans that are appropriate for a novice general dentist.
- Recognize case complexity, including when referrals may be needed.
- Exhibit understanding of different models of oral healthcare delivery.
- Self-evaluate their progress toward competency.
- Conduct themselves in an ethical and professional manner consistent with the expectations of the profession.
Required Curriculum (4-year traditional program)
DMD Curriculum: Year 1
During the first year, students take in-depth courses in the basic biomedical and behavioral sciences that are foundational to dental practice. These courses are separate and distinct from the courses taught to medical students and are taught jointly by the faculties of the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. Also, students begin to take preclinical dental science courses in the first year that introduce dental terminology, the dental specialties, preventive dentistry, oral radiology, and dental assisting techniques, all in preparation for early exposure to clinical dentistry. Of particular note, the course SDM GD 510 Comprehensive Preclinical Dentistry includes scheduled experiences in dental assisting in the school’s clinical areas. The first-year experience is completed by student participation in the APEX clerkship, where students function as interns in dental offices.
View the DMD Curriculum: Year 1 Courses
- SDM GD 510 Comprehensive Preclinical Dentistry
- SDM MB 511 Molecular Genetics
- SDM MD 510 Anatomical Sciences I
- SDM MD 511 Anatomical Sciences II
- SDM MD 512 Biochemistry
- SDM MD 514 Physiology
- SDM MD 515 Microbiology and Immunology
- SDM MD 520 Pathology (General)
- SDM OB 511 Oral Biology I
- SDM OD 510 Oral Diagnosis and Radiology I
- SDM PH 512 Professional Ethics Development
- SDM PH 517 Evidence-Based Dentistry
- SDM PH 610 Applied Professional Experience Clerkship (APEX)
- SDM RS 510 Dental Anatomy and Occlusion
DMD Curriculum: Year 2
The second year is characterized by significantly increased instruction in preclinical dental techniques as well as continued instruction in the foundational biomedical and behavioral sciences. As the focus shifts toward the clinical sciences, laboratory simulations foster the development of skills necessary for patient care in operative dentistry, fixed prosthodontics, removable prosthodontics, pediatric dentistry, endodontics, and occlusion. In addition, a problem-based learning course challenges students to discuss the business of dental practice and the psychology and ethics of patient care.
View the DMD Curriculum: Year 2 Courses
- SDM EN 521 Endodontics
- SDM EN 522 Preclinical Endodontics
- SDM GD 520 CAD/CAM Fundamentals and Practice
- SDM GD 540 Preclinical Implantology
- SDM MD 530 Pharmacology
- SDM OB 520 Oral Biology II
- SDM OD 522 Oral Diagnosis and Radiology II
- SDM OS 520 General Medicine and Dental Correlations
- SDM OS 521 Pain Control I
- SDM PE 520 Periodontology I
- SDM PE 521 Preclinical Periodontology
- SDM PH 514 Preventive Dentistry
- SDM PH 520 Integrated Problems in Practice Management II
- SDM PH 521 Behavioral Science
- SDM RS 519 Biomaterials
- SDM RS 521 Preclinical Operative Dentistry
- SDM RS 522 Removable Prosthodontics I
- SDM RS 523 Preclinical Removable Prosthodontics
- SDM RS 524 Fixed Prosthodontics I
- SDM RS 525 Preclinical Fixed Prosthodontics
- SDM RS 527 Occlusion and TMD
- SDM RS 529 Operative Dentistry
DMD Curriculum: Year 3
The third year is a combination of coursework and direct patient care. As students transition from the second year, they are assigned patients for comprehensive oral healthcare. During the year, the student assumes increasingly greater responsibility for patients, treats more complex oral health problems, and has increasing exposure to the specialty disciplines of dentistry. With few exceptions, the student dentist performs all of the necessary oral healthcare for the assigned patient and therefore assumes the position of general practitioner or family dentist. Students are supported and guided in their development as clinical care providers through the faculty mentoring program.
View the DMD Curriculum: Year 3 Courses
- SDM GD 581 Facial Neuromodulators and Soft Tissue Fillers
- SDM GD 640 Comprehensive Clinical Dentistry in a Group Practice Model
- SDM GD 650 Clinical Data Collection and Treatment Planning
- SDM GD 660 Critical Thinking
- SDM OD 531 Oral Medicine
- SDM OD 642 Clinical Radiology
- SDM OR 530 Orthodontics
- SDM OS 530 Oral Surgery
- SDM OS 532 Pain Control II
- SDM PA 530 Oral Pathology
- SDM PD 530 Pediatric Dentistry
- SDM PE 530 Periodontology II
- SDM PH 530 Health Care Law
- SDM PH 541 Gerontology & Geriatric Dentistry
- SDM RS 532 Removable Prosthodontics II
- SDM RS 534 Fixed Prosthodontics II
- SDM RS 544 Treatment Planning and Patient Management I
DMD Curriculum: Year 4
The fourth year is designed so that students can make significant progress in achieving clinical competency through continued care of patients. The year allows students flexibility to pursue their particular interests, including research, elective externships (national and international), and community service activities. Taken together, the third- and fourth-year curriculum provides students the opportunity to achieve excellence in clinical patient care.
View the DMD Curriculum: Year 4 Courses
- SDM EN 640 Clinical Endodontics
- SDM GD 642 Group Practice Learning and Leadership
- SDM GD 650 Clinical Data Collection and Treatment Planning
- SDM OD 644 Clinical Urgent Care
- SDM OS 640 Clinical Oral Surgery
- SDM PD 640 Clinical Pediatric Dentistry
- SDM PE 640 Clinical Periodontology II
- SDM PH 544 Integrated Problems in Practice Management IV
- SDM PH 644 Externship
- SDM RS 542 Treatment Planning Seminar
- SDM RS 545 Treatment Planning and Patient Management II
- SDM RS 640 Clinical Operative Dentistry II
- SDM RS 641 Clinical Fixed Prosthodontics II
- SDM RS 642 Clinical Removable Prosthodontics II
DMD Curriculum: Electives
- SDM GD 582 Preclinical Facial Neuromodulators and Soft Tissue Fillers
- SDM GD 606 Esthetic Dentistry
- SDM MB 652 IREC 2
- SDM MB 653 IREC 3
- SDM PE 670 Current Topics in Dentistry
- SDM PH 650 Elective Externships
- SDM PH 660 International Externship Exchange Program
Completion is not tracked by unit accumulation but by successful completion of individual courses and duration requirements.
Required Curriculum (2-year Advanced Standing Program)
The Advanced Standing (AS) Program is designed for graduates of non-accredited international dental schools who seek to practice dentistry in the United States or Canada. The AS program provides qualified candidates the opportunity to achieve a recognized DMD degree from an American Dental Association-accredited school, fulfilling this regulatory requirement for clinical licensure mandated by individual state or provincial Boards of Registration in Dentistry.
The AS curriculum compresses the latter three years of the traditional four-year DMD program into two years, which is feasible on the basis of these students having had previous dental training. The AS program’s clinical component is identical to that of the four-year DMD program, including the intramural clinical rotations. The AS program is fully integrated within the school and the AS students complete the same clinical competencies prior to graduation as do the traditional four-year DMD students.
AS Curriculum: Year 1
The AS first year is a hybrid of the DMD second- and third-year curriculum. Didactic and preclinical laboratory courses review and augment these students’ previous instruction in the clinical and behavioral sciences as well as the dental techniques necessary for patient care.
View the AS I Curriculum Courses
- SDM EN 521 AS Endodontics
- SDM EN 522 AS Preclinical Endodontics
- SDM GD 520 AS CAD/CAM Fundamentals and Practice
- SDM GD 540 AS Preclinical Implantology
- SDM MD 531 AS Pharmacology
- SDM OD 522 AS Oral Diagnosis/Radiology II
- SDM OD 531 AS Oral Medicine
- SDM OS 520 AS General Medicine and Dental Correlations
- SDM OS 521 AS Pain Control I
- SDM OS 532 AS Pain Control II
- SDM PA 530 AS Oral Pathology
- SDM PE 520 AS Periodontology I
- SDM PE 521 AS Preclinical Periodontology
- SDM PH 512 AS Professional Ethics Development
- SDM PH 521 AS Behavioral Science
- SDM PH 524 AS Preventive Dentistry
- SDM PH 541 AS Gerontology & Geriatric Dentistry
- SDM RS 519 AS Biomaterials
- SDM RS 521 AS Preclinical Operative Dentistry
- SDM RS 522 AS Removable Prosthodontics I
- SDM RS 523 AS Preclinical Removable Prosthodontics I
- SDM RS 524 AS Fixed Prosthodontics I
- SDM RS 525 AS Preclinical Fixed Prosthodontics
- SDM RS 527 AS Occlusion and TMD
- SDM RS 529 AS Operative Dentistry
- SDM RS 542 AS Treatment Planning Seminar
AS Curriculum: Year 2
The AS second year is a hybrid of the DMD third- and fourth-year curriculum, with a combination of coursework and direct patient care.
View the AS II Curriculum Courses
- SDM EN 640 AS Clinical Endodontics
- SDM GD 581 AS Facial Neuromodulators and Soft Tissue Fillers
- SDM GD 642 AS Group Practice Learning and Leadership
- SDM GD 650 AS Clinical Data Collection and Treatment Planning
- SDM GD 660 AS Critical Thinking
- SDM OD 642 AS Clinical Radiology
- SDM OD 644 AS Clinical Urgent Care
- SDM OR 530 AS Orthodontics
- SDM OS 530 AS Oral Surgery
- SDM OS 640 AS Clinical Oral Surgery
- SDM PD 530 AS Pediatric Dentistry
- SDM PD 640 AS Clinical Pediatric Dentistry
- SDM PE 530 AS Periodontology II
- SDM PE 640 AS Clinical Periodontology II
- SDM PH 530 AS Health Care Law
- SDM PH 544 AS Integrated Problems in Practice Management IV
- SDM RS 532 AS Removable Prosthodontics II
- SDM RS 534 AS Fixed Prosthodontics II
- SDM RS 546 AS Clinical Treatment Planning & Patient Management
- SDM RS 640 AS Clinical Operative Dentistry II
- SDM RS 641 AS Clinical Fixed Prosthodontics II
- SDM RS 642 AS Clinical Removable Prosthodontics II
AS Curriculum: Electives
- SDM GD 582 Preclinical Facial Neuromodulators and Soft Tissue Fillers
- SDM GD 606 Esthetic Dentistry
- SDM MB 652 IREC 2
- SDM MB 653 IREC 3
- SDM PE 670 Current Topics in Dentistry
- SDM PH 650 Elective Externships
Completion is not tracked by unit accumulation but by successful completion of individual courses and duration requirements.
