Advanced Education -- General Practice Residency
Department of Comprehensive Dentistry & Biomaterials

The General Dentistry Program at the LSU School of Dentistry and affiliated hospitals in the LSU Health Care Services Division (Baton Rouge and New Orleans) is a one-year/optional second-year hospital-based residency. The program offers a unique opportunity for an advanced clinical and didactic experience in a university hospital environment with additional training in the arts and sciences basic to a general dental practice. The objectives of the program are to educate dentists to function as part of a hospital team and to gain competency in diagnosing and rendering comprehensive and preventive dental treatment for the medically compromised patient. A general dentistry certificate is awarded to each resident who successfully completes the program.

The primary teaching hospitals are the Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans (Interim Louisiana Hospital - ILH) and Earl K. Long Medical Center, Baton Rouge. Other affiliated teaching institutions are the LSUHSC School of Dentistry (LSUSD), New Orleans; the LSUHSC School of Medicine, New Orleans; LSU School of Dentistry Clinic, Baton Rouge; and Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System’s Dental Clinic, Metairie. Rotations are scheduled through the departments of comprehensive care, oral and maxillofacial surgery, general anesthesia, and emergency medicine. Residents are also instructed in hospital protocol and organization. Comprehensive inpatient and outpatient care is emphasized, including extensive use of the operating room. Residents may also gain experience in teaching pre-doctoral students at LSUSD.

Appointment to the program is for a twelve-month period beginning July 1 through June 30, with a contract being sent after notification of acceptance. A new contract is signed at the beginning of the second resident year.  The program requires participation in the Postdoctoral Application Support Service (PASS). A personal interview with faculty members and a tour of the LSUHSC School of Dentistry facilities in New Orleans or Baton Rouge are usually conducted during November and December. Applications are accepted from senior dental students who will be completing their predoctoral studies or from graduates of dental schools recognized by the American Dental Association Commission on Dental Accreditation and who have successfully completed Part I of the National Board Examinations.  Applicants are required to secure a restricted or full license to practice dentistry in Louisiana upon acceptance as a resident in the program (exam for restricted license will be scheduled at orientation).

Applicants must agree to participate in the GPR Matching Program, the description of which is excerpted below. The LSU GPR PASS deadline is October 15; all supplemental papers and the PASS application must be received by LSU by November 1.  

The use of the matching program for first-year residents in oral and maxillofacial surgery residency programs has been utilized for residency positions since 1986. This program is sponsored by the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and administered through the National Matching Service. The matching program is financed by fees paid by the AAOMS, applicants, and programs participating.

The matching program provides an orderly method to enable applicants to obtain positions in the first-year residency program of their choice and also to help programs obtain applicants of their choice. This will eliminate an inequitable recruitment process that forces premature decisions, which put unnecessary pressure on both applicants as well as programs. This is very similar to the National Matching Program for medical students applying to medical residency programs throughout the United States. Applicants and programs continue to contact each other directly and interview and evaluate each other independently of the Matching Program. However, no offers are made during this period. After all the interviews are completed, both applicants and residency programs submit a confidential "Rank Order List" in which they list the applicants or programs in order of their preference. Both applicants and programs may safely list preferred choices first without consideration for how they will be ranked by the other party. All information submitted to the Matching Program is kept confidential.

Participating programs must offer all first-year positions through the Matching Program. Programs may not make or require any commitments or contracts with anyone prior to the release of the match results. Similarly, applicants may apply only to programs that are participating in the Matching Program or until the results of the match are released. The confidential "Rank Order List" submitted by each program and applicant are the sole determinants of their respective order or preference of the match.

The match results constitute a binding commitment from which neither the applicant nor the program can withdraw without mutual written agreement. The program must offer appointments to each applicant with whom it is matched, and the applicant must accept the offer from the program unless both parties agree to release each other from the match result. The program may not accept any applicant who was matched elsewhere and subsequently not released from that match.

 All graduation requirements of a resident’s dental school must be met prior to the start of residency on July 1 or the student will be dropped from the program.  Any exceptions must be approved by the GPR Program Director.  If successful completion of Part II of the National Board Examinations is not one of those requirements and has not yet been accomplished, that resident has until December 31 to do so.  If that does not occur, the resident will be dropped from the program.

Applications from graduates of dental schools outside of the United States may only be considered for the one year Special Needs Dentistry fellowship.  Successful completion of parts I and II of the National Board Examinations, the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), and permanent U.S. residency or citizenship are prerequisites for application to the fellowship.

For additional information on recruitment please see the following:
Postgraduate GPR Prospectus
GPR Goals, Objectives, and Curriculum Plan

Key Information

Contact the LSUHSC School of  Dentistry
Office of Advanced Education:
Eric J. Hovland, DDS, MEd, MBA
Director, Office of Advanced Education
c/o Delores Bradford, Administrative Assistant
LSUHSC School of Dentistry
1100 Florida Avenue
New Orleans, LA  70119
tel. 504-941-8113; fax 504-941-8180 
E-mail: ds-AdvancedEducation@lsuhsc.edu
 

LSU School of Dentistry Department of Comprehensive Dentistry & Biomaterials