The College of Dentistry at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center will host a “floss-cutting” opening event Tuesday, July 13, at 10 a.m., at its newest dental clinic on the Memphis campus.
The Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) Clinic on the 3rd floor of the Dunn Dental Building at 875 Union Avenue, Suite C302, will be staffed by dental residents, degreed and licensed dentists, who have chosen to receive advanced clinical training in a one-year residency program.
The dental residents, with support and supervision from faculty of the Department of General Dentistry, will offer comprehensive dental care for adults in the state-of-the-art, five-chair AEGD dental clinic that simulates a private-practice setting, without the cost. “Fees for the AEGD patients will be significantly lower than fees in a corporate or private dental setting and in line with our other graduate programs,” said Courtney Sievers, PhD, MHA, assistant dean, Clinical Operations in the UTHSC College of Dentistry.
All treatment will be supervised by dentists with decades of experience. “The AEGD patient will receive the best of both worlds—high quality and lower fees,” said Bard J. Levey, DDS, assistant professor in the Department of General Dentistry at UTHSC and site director for the AEGD-Memphis program. “Our focus is not on driving profit, rather our goal is the development of the adroit, technologically savvy, ethical, and evidence-based dentist. The result is a true win-win situation for the patients and our residents.”
The AEGD program will serve an important role in the college by helping to accommodate patients whose treatment needs exceed the ability of the undergraduate dental student. The College of Dentistry received approval in March from the Commission on Dental Accreditation to begin the Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency program in Memphis. The college has a similar program site in Nashville.
“I am very excited about the opening of our Advanced Education in General Dentistry Residency,” said James Ragain, DDS, MS, PhD, FICD, FACD, dean of the UTHSC College of Dentistry. “This program will provide advanced training to recently graduated dentists in all aspects of general dentistry, including complicated root canal treatments, crowns and bridges, and implants. The graduates of this program will be better prepared to provide comprehensive care in the practice of general dentistry for their patients. Our local community and patients will benefit from having this additional level of treatment at our dental school.”
Clinic hours will be 9 a.m. to noon, and 1 to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. To become a patient, call the AEGD clinic at 901.448.2343 to set up a screening appointment.