PROGRAM HISTORY

Our Advanced Education Program in General Dentistry (AEGD) was established in 1995. The program is a one-year program and is fully accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA). An optional second year is also available.

In July 1, 1995, the AEGD program started with four residents, a hygienist, four front desk staff, and dental assistants. Since the inception of this program, we have received three Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Title VII Residency Training Grants for improvement and expansion of the program. Our latest grant (2010-2015) in the amount of $1,265,463.00 made it possible for our residents to rotate through off-site clinics to provide care to the under-served population and receive training in cultural competency.

HRSA Title VII Residency Training Programs
1996-1999 $191,657 (PI: Dr. Richard B. Bebermeyer and Co-PI: Dr. Sheila H. Koh)
2001-2004 $349,679 (PI: Dr. Sheila H. Koh and Co-PIs: Dr. Richard B. Bebermeyer and Dr. Cleverick D. Johnson)
2010-2015 $1,265,463 (PIs: Dr. Sheila H. Koh and Dr. Sudarat Kiat-amnuay)

Our residents receive comprehensive care training with state of the art equipment in a modern facility. AEGD operates jointly with the GPR in a single site. Our clinic provides modern technology (dental laser, E4D/Planmeca CAD/CAM systems, Simplant virtual implant planning software, 6 different implant surgical and prosthetic systems, digital endodontics, endodontic microscope, digital denture, AxiUm and MiPACs, and state of the art evidence-based dental materials). Our residents receive excellent training under dedicated faculty members. There are 11 general dentists (1 board certified and 2 MAGDs), a prosthodontist (board certified), a periodontist, and an endodontist. There are plenty of complex patient pools in our residency program. Resident and assistant ratio is approximately 1:1 with 5 front desk/insurance staff members.

Program Directors

1995-1999, Dr. Richard D. Bebermeyer
1999-2003, Dr. Sheila H. Koh
2003-2004, Dr. Pamela Minke
2004-2007, Dr. Robert Mayhew
2007-2012, Dr. Raymond Simmons (Interim)/Dr. Sudarat Kiat-amnuay (Clinic Director)
2012-Present, Dr. Sudarat Kiat-amnuary

CURRICULUM

The Advanced Education in General Dentistry Program's curriculum is heavily centered on clinical protocols and experiences and is supplemented with relevant didactic seminars or seminar series. Frequently, seminars are integrated with other dental specialties and especially with the UTHealth School of Dentistry General Practice Residency (GPR) Program.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Anesthesia, Pain Control, and Pharmacology
• Asepsis, Infection and Hazard Control
• Clinical Dentistry
  • Endodontics
  • Implant Dentistry
  • Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery
  • Oral Pathology/Oral Medicine
  • Periodontics
  • Preventive Dentistry
  • Prosthodontics (including full mouth rehabilitation and cosmetic dentistry)
  • Restorative Dentistry
• Dental Photography
• Medically Compromised Patients
• Oral Diagnosis and Treatment Planning Conferences (2-4 hours/week)
• Practice Management
  • Dental Clinic Design
  • Associateships
• TMJ/Myofacial Disorders
• Technologies in Clinical Dentistry

Curriculum Sample

GOALS & OBJECTIVES

The overall objectives of the Advanced Education in General Dentistry Program are:

• Advanced training in general dentistry practice at the postdoctoral level.
• Clinical experiences in comprehensive oral health care to a wide range of patients: the dentally complex and those with medically, physically and mentally compromising conditions, including age and socioeconomic status.
• Extensive clinical and didactic opportunities for interdisciplinary interaction between the resident and other health-care providers.
• Promotion and guidance of critical thinking for advanced treatment planning to provide a wide range of diagnosis and treatment needs for patients.
• Up-to-date evidence-based dentistry review and use of technologies in dentistry.
• Didactic information and clinical guidance in communication, behavioral management and practice management skills and the opportunity to apply them to the practice of dentistry.
• An appropriate environment for critical review and presentation of literature and the pursuit of individual research interest and career goals.

Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand Scholarship Positions under the International Scholarship Training Program (ISTP)

One to two resident per year may be recruited from candidates that obtain scholarship from the Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and/or Thailand under signed official Agreement of Cooperation and Program Agreement between our UTHealth and Kuwait Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia Ministry of Higher Education, and Thailand University Higher Education.

One year or 2-year residency is offered. Residents’ second year residency is predicated on the performance and success in the first year. Residents may apply for admission to other UTHealth schools or programs, such as the Master’s degree program (MPH) at UTHealth’s School of Public Health (approximately 18-24 months program), Dental Informatics joint program with School of Dentistry and School of Biomedical Informatics, subject to the available capacity of UTHealth and in accordance with standard admissions criteria for applications, policies, procedures and laws to which UTHealth and its academic programs are subject. Residents who successfully complete two years of the Advanced Education in General Dentistry program may apply to take the American Board of General Dentistry written and/or oral examinations, in accordance with requirements of the Board.

Six months to 1 year pre-residency program may be required for some candidates before entering residency program. For more information, please contact Program Director, Sudarat Kiat-amnuay, DDS, MS, ISTP Faculty Leader or Jessica Coleman, Residency Academic & Admissions Advisor I.

Admission from Non-ADA Accredited Schools

Graduates from non-ADA accredited schools are encouraged to complete this school's minimum six-month preceptorship in general dentistry before applying for the residency program. Information for current preceptorship offerings is available online at the Pace Center.

Questions on this may be directed to Program Director Sudarat Kiat-amnuay, DDS, or Continuing Education Coordinator Kassie Broussard. Furthermore, completion of the preceptorship does not guarantee admission to the graduate general dentistry programs. Information on the preceptorship is available from the Office of Continuing Education.

Program Facilities

The University of Texas School of Dentistry

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Dentistry is a public professional school with a unique heritage and an unparalleled set of environmental advantages. The School of Dentistry was founded in 1905 as the first dental school in Texas, and as such has a long and proud tradition of educating quality oral health care professionals. The School of Dentistry is one of the cornerstones of excellence that contributes to the strengths of the UT Health Science Center at Houston by offering an excellent clinical education in an established research climate. As the School of Dentistry celebrates its centennial in 2005, it will focus on optimizing its strategic strengths with the realization that it is well-positioned to take a leading role in oral health education and research.

The Texas Medical Center

The Texas Medical Center, today the largest medical city in the world, started with a dream to create a medical center, where people from all walks of life could have access to the best health care anywhere — whether they were rich, poor, famous, alone, young, or old.

In the more than half century since that dream originated, it has been realized many times over. The Texas Medical Center today has more than 40+ member institutions that each exists to serve all of mankind. On any given day, one can find people from every social circumstance and many of the world's nations seeking treatment at the center's renowned institutions.

Many of the member institutions are working to make the Texas Medical Center quality of care convenient to even more people by putting clinics, offices, and other facilities in neighborhoods throughout Houston and the surrounding communities, and even in other parts of Texas and the world.

All of the Texas Medical Center's member institutions are not-for-profit, and are dedicated to the highest standards of patient and preventive care, research, education, and local, national, and international community well-being. These institutions include several renowned hospitals and specialty institutions, medical schools, nursing schools, and schools of dentistry, public health, pharmacy, and virtually all health-related careers. It is where one of the first, and still the largest, air emergency service was created; a very successful inter-institutional transplant program was developed; and more heart surgeries are performed than anywhere else in the world.

The University of Texas Health Science Center Professional Building

The University Dental Center (UDC) is located in Suite 310 of this modern, multi-story UT Professional Building adjacent to the Memorial Hermann Hospital. The 13 operatory clinic is home to both the Advanced Education in General Dentistry Program (AEGD) and the General Practice Residency (GPR) with appropriate supporting staff.

“Looking Back: A History of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Training Program at The University of Texas-Houston 1949-1999” and "Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, The University of Texas School of Dentistry at Houston, 2000-2015," both by Robert R. Debes, DDS, with Donald P. Butler, DDS, are now available in PDF format. 

In May 1948, Edward C. Hinds, MD, DDS, a graduate of Baylor College of Medicine and Texas A&M College of Dentistry, became the first chair of the Department of Oral Surgery at The University of Texas School of Dentistry at Houston (formerly known as the "Dental Branch"). Launched July 1, 1949, the department offered the first formal oral surgery training program in Texas.

Since then, the length of the residency has evolved from a single track, two-year program to twin programs lasting four or six years. The six-year program enables the resident to earn a medical degree from the McGovern Medical School, and both tracks award graduates a certificate of training from a fully accredited program. A special program allows qualified residents to earn a PhD during residency.

The residents rotate through the School of Dentistry and different hospitals in the Texas Medical Center, including Memorial Hermann Hospital, Houston Methodist Hospital, the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Ben Taub General Hospital, Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital and the Shriners Hospital. 

The department also enjoys a close research affiliation with Rice University, and several of the department’s faculty members hold adjunct appointments with the Department of Bioengineering. Current research activities focus on tissue regeneration, cancer immunobiology and management of head and neck infections. The Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery receives funding from a variety of sources, including the NIH and the U.S. Department of Defense.

The training program at UTHealth is the largest and one of the most highly ranked in the United States. Currently, six residents are selected from an applicant pool of 150-200 candidates. A highly motivated alumni organization, the Edward C. Hinds Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, strongly supports the department’s educational, service and research activities through a separate foundation, the Hinds Foundation.

Since the program’s founding in 1948, the department has had three chairs:

The Program Directors since 1949, responsible for residency training, are as follows:

The department’s members and alumni have been active in various national and international associations representing the specialty. The Association of American Society of Oral Surgeons was founded in 1918 and later became the Association of American Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Two alumni have served as president:

The American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, the certifying agency for the specialty, was founded in 1946 and two of our alumni have served as President:

The current department chair, Mark E. K. Wong, BDS, is a past president of the ABOMS.

Residents who have completed the program are in practice throughout Texas and the U.S., and a few practice in foreign countries, including Taiwan, Thailand, Italy, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Canada and Switzerland. The success of our graduates in their communities has strengthened the reputation of the department and helped make Houston's one of the most sought-after residency programs for oral and maxillofacial training in the world.

Six-Year Integrated OMS/MD Program Outline