V.A. Medical Center, Sepulveda

VA Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center (SACC) is located approximately fifteen miles north of the city of Los Angeles in San Fernando Valley. The Medical Center is close to the junctions of the 118 and 405 freeways. The street location is at the corner of Plummer Street and Woodley. The main gate is on Plummer Street with one alternate gate on Woodley Ave. There are over 50 nursing home patients admitted to the nursing home per year and approximately 20,000 outpatient treatment visits per year

The population treated within the VA hospital setting has significant dental needs. Concomitantly, patients typically have an array of debilitating physical, psychological, and medical conditions that complicate their dental treatment. The residents become highly trained in the management of these complex and difficult patients. The spectrum of dental care ranges from unscheduled emergency procedures to comprehensive evaluation and treatment of eligible inpatients and outpatients, which encompasses virtually all specialty areas in dentistry. Many of the patients admitted to the hospital and nursing home are given routine examinations or referred for dental related problems. Special emphasis is placed on providing treatment to patients with dental conditions associated with or exacerbating compelling medical problems, such as head and neck cancer, spinal cord injury, diabetes, cardiac valvular dysfunction, orthopedic prostheses, and organ transplantation.

The Dental Service provides broad consultative services to ENT, Radiation Therapy, Orthopedics, Psychiatry, Medicine and the Nursing Home Care Unit. 

The program is very clinically oriented and residents spend the majority of the program providing dental treatment on an outpatient basis. Residents obtain significant experience in endodontics, surgical and non-surgical periodontal treatment, surgical placement and restoration of implants, oral and maxillofacial surgery, and complex prosthodontic treatment – both fixed and removable. We have a Primescan scanner and exposure to AI.

Didactic course work include topics in endodontics, prosthodontics, implantology, oral pathology, pharmacology, occlusion, medical emergencies, history and physical, and practice management. Treatment planning sessions and literature review discussions also occur on a weekly basis. 

The Dental Service is staffed by full-time and part-time dentists. The program director is a prosthodontist, and is also another prosthodontist covering another day a week, an endodontist that comes in on Tuesdays,  oral and maxillofacial surgeon on Mondays, 2 part-time periodontists, 4 general dentists that cover 2 days a week, 2 hygienists, 12 dental assistants and 1 program support assistant. 

Residents typically will complete at least 30 crowns, 20 root canals, 75 extractions, 10-15 implant placements and at least 10 implants restorations including implant assisted overdentures, and at least 2 periodontal surgeries.

There is a dedicated attending faculty of the day who is there to support you through clinical procedures. There is a full-day of endodontic coverage once a week, as well as surgical coverage twice a week. 

*Effective July 1, 2024, our program has converted from a GPR to an AEGD.

Current stipend offered is $93,777.

There are 5 positions: 4 at the VA Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center and 1 at Los Angeles Ambulatory Care Center 

Stipend $93,777

For more information on program, please reach out to the program director at jane.kwon@va.gov. 

Thank you for your interest in our program.