Meharry Medical College

My personal mission statement, as the Program Director, to you, the prospective resident, is:

• Develop Superb dental alveolar surgical skills (for many of our sickest patients, surgery/prosthetics ARE the best treatment)
• Become fully fluent in medicine to bridge the communication gap between medical and dental professionals
• Develop diagnosis and treatment planning skills for both emergency and comprehensive care patients
• Unify both Medical and Dental knowledge expertly to efficiently care for Medically Complex patients INCLUDING special needs patients
• Develop practice management skills to prepare the practitioner to work without specialist support in both inner-city and rural environments

This postgraduate program trains residents to treat medically compromised patients in ambulatory and non-ambulatory settings. Students accepted into our General Practice Residency Program will find in our hospital-based program our committed faculty and staff, solid teamwork, and a broad patient pool. Our primary comprehensive and emergency care clinic is located inside the Meharry School of Dentistry, and is directly connected to Nashville General Hospital next door (our index hospital).  Our busy setting lends itself to more complete resident training through individualized patient care.

Our General Practice Residency Program is comprised of 80% clinic and 20% didactic in a private, emergency room-like setting where comprehensive dentistry is delivered. Residents receive training in multidisciplinary skills with a heavy emphasis on outpatient exodontia and pre-prosthetic surgery.  We have rotations in Internal Medicine, Anesthesia, Oral Surgery, the Veterans Hospital Dental Clinic, Comprehensive Care Clinic, Special Needs, and Emergency Clinic.  We also staff 24-hour on-call positions for the Emergency Department at Nashville General Hospital.  We also offer and require the completion of IV sedation training (60 hours didactic) through our partnerships with DOCS, with certification upon completion of the training.  The certification allows the resident to seek a moderate sedation permit in most states.  We also require case-based research projects, which you will develop early on into an abstract, scholarly article, poster presentation, and finally an oral presentation at Meharry's Annual Homecoming Week.

We have an excellent, fully-accredited, rewarding program that requires hard work from the residents but will pay dividends in your future by reducing your stress levels with commonly-feared procedures, and also teaching you how to manage medically complex patients and cases that DO NOT conform to the basic ideals you learned in your pre-doctoral dental studies.

Copy of National Board Scores Part I and II or INDBE must be passed by April 15th of your application year, and are required for matriculation.