Curriculum Third Year

This lecture and laboratory course introduces students to the concepts and techniques of pediatric dentistry. It provides the basis for beginning clinical experiences with pediatric patients. This course provides the concepts, techniques, and psychomotor skills necessary to provide comprehensive dental care to pediatric patients.

Seminars expand students’ foundation knowledge in health promotion and disease prevention activities with patients in the clinics at the Penn Dental Medicine.

Experiences in selected community settings provide students with the opportunity to develop and expand their skills in community oral health promotion. Students are scheduled to visit local elementary and middle schools and participate in the oral health education, screening and referral programs under the direct supervision of faculty members. In addition, students complete activities from a selected list of programs at local community agencies and/or schools. Students attend small group seminars to discuss their experiences and theoretical underpinnings of community oral health activities.

This course is divided into five modules. The first, operative and esthetic dentistry, reviews basic principles of cavity preparation and restorative materials and relates these principles to more advanced and complex applications. Several basic and advanced esthetic dentistry procedures are also presented. A second module, fixed prosthodontics, in addition to providing a review of the principles of this discipline, includes presentations on cad-cam and laser technology, advanced techniques for the construction of provisional restorations, use of attachments in all fixed and combination fixed and removable prosthesis, and occlusal and esthetic concepts. The third module, removable prosthodontics, is a continuation of the second-year course on removable partial prosthesis. Clinically relevant topics from the fitting of the prosthesis framework through insertion and post insertion care of the prosthesis are presented. In addition, predoctoral students are exposed to the concepts and techniques related to tooth supported complete dentures and the crown and sleeve coping prosthesis in this module. The fourth module, implant dentistry, will present an approach to the biological and scientific basis for implantology, patient evaluation including diagnosis, treatment planning, and implant selection, implant surgery and post- surgical care, implant prosthodontics procedures, and maintenance protocols. The fifth module will present the student with advanced clinical cases focused on restorative dentistry.

Comprehensive care is defined as the overall patient care delivery system that includes all dental services, including emergency care, treatment planning, general dentistry, specialty care, and maintenance programs. The delivery of such care revolves around the Primary Care Unit (PCU) Program. Within each unit, third- and fourth-year students perform examination and diagnostic procedures, comprehensive treatment planning, all restorative dental procedures, fixed and removable prosthodontic procedures, including implant supported restorations, non-surgical periodontal procedures, and maintenance therapy. The PCU program goal is to produce a practitioner who can integrate basic science knowledge with clinical proficiency in all phases of general dentistry, based on the concept of recognition and treatment of oral disease.

This course/clinic is a sequel to 741 Comprehensive Care (Fall)

This clinical course exposes the student to many components of pediatric dentistry, including but not limited to diagnosis, prevention, restorative dentistry, pulp therapy, management of the developing occlusion, behavior guidance, and care of special children. Penn Dental Medicine competency statements, as they apply to children, adolescents, and special needs patients are the focus.

Competency examinations for this course relate to obtaining informed consent and to practicing in an ethical manner.

PEDM III focuses on responsibly transitioning into the post-graduation world of dentistry and covers a variety of topics such as licensure, residency applications, completing graduation requirements, as well as mentorship and real-world clinical practice dilemmas.

The lecture-based course will provide the student with experience in early orthodontic treatment, exposing him/her to malocclusions arising in a normally developing craniofacial complex. Management of these problems aims at providing an unimpeded eruption and alignment of the permanent dentition.

Other topics include biological and mechanical principles of tooth movement as well as corrective orthodontics.

The Endodontic Clinic trains predoctoral students to become competent in basic endodontic procedures on vital and non-vital teeth. This includes instruction in diagnosis, treatment planning, treatment/obturation, post-endodontic restoration and related entities (bleaching of non-vital teeth, treatment of traumatic injuries, etc.). This instruction is expanded and reinforced in the third-year clinic.

The purpose of this lecture-based course is to give students a foundation for understanding disorders which directly affect the oral and para-oral structures as well as common medical disorders and how to alter dental treatment in patients with complex medical conditions.

The Admissions and Emergency Care Clinic rotation consists of combined rotations in the Emergency Care Clinic and the Oral Diagnosis Clinic. The Emergency Care Clinic provides emergency care to ‘walk- in’ non-registered patients. Emphasis is placed on efficient and thorough dental care to ensure that the patient receives the highest quality of emergency dental care in a timely manner.

The Admissions or Oral Diagnosis Clinic provides an initial evaluation for Penn Dental Medicine patients who register for comprehensive care on an appointment basis. Students that rotate through the Oral Diagnosis Clinic assess the medical and oral health status of the patients. Additionally, the medical status of all patients (except ASA I patients) are reassessed annually in the Oral Diagnosis Clinic.

This lecture-based course is designed to give students a foundation for understanding physical diagnosis, medical workups, consultations, and conditions that directly affect management of the dental patient. The students will learn the skills of physical diagnosis and how to complete the “History and Physical”. They will learn how to interpret and evaluate clinical, laboratory, radiographic, and other diagnostic information and procedures regarding the medical problem list. The students will also learn how to recognize the normal range of clinical findings as well as significant abnormalities requiring medical management of the dental patient. By the end of this course, the students will be knowledgeable in history taking, physical exam, medical status assessment, interpreting laboratory results and assigning an ASA classification to the patient at the end of the medical interview.

This lecture-based course is designed to give the student exposure to all aspects of the wide and varied scope of oral and maxillofacial surgery. The course also promotes the integration of the basic sciences and medicine into the daily practice of oral and maxillofacial surgery and dentistry.

Students perform uncomplicated exodontia and minor pre-prosthetic surgical procedures that are approved by the clinical instructors, assist the instructors in complicated surgical procedures, and observe the administration of intravenous sedation and general anesthesia.

Students are assigned 12-15 rotations in the Radiology Clinic during their third and fourth years. During their rotations, they take full-mouth x-ray series on newly admitted patients who are sent to Radiology from the Admissions Clinic.Students are assigned 12-15 rotations in the Radiology Clinic during their third and fourth years. During their rotations, they take full-mouth x-ray series on newly admitted patients who are sent to Radiology from the Admissions Clinic.

This lecture-based course is designed to acquaint the student practitioner with the fundamentals of periodontal surgery necessary for the comprehensive practice of general dentistry. A major emphasis will be directed towards an understanding of the normal periodontium and a correlation of the events in the histopathology of inflammation, trauma and wound healing to afford the student a biological basis for dental practice.

The Periodontics Clinic provides third- and fourth-year students the opportunity to treat patients with differences of severity in existing periodontal disease. In most cases, the patients afford the students adequate experiences and impart to them comprehensive knowledge of the tissues of the periodontium and the fundamental principles underlying the prevention and treatment of diseases that afflict the periodontal tissues.

Lectures and seminars provide students with foundation knowledge regarding career planning and policies and procedures related to employment and business management in dental practice.

Through clinical rotations, the student is exposed to patients with malocclusions that arise in a normally developing craniofacial complex. Management of these problems aims at providing an unimpeded eruption and alignment of the permanent dentition.

The seminar is an open forum discussion in which students make case presentations after which the diagnosis, treatment plan, and therapy are analyzed and evaluated. Initially, the PCU leader may present cases in order to establish the proper method of case presentation; thereafter, it is the student’s responsibility to present thoroughly documented cases which include photographic slides of pretreatment, a complete dental and medical evaluation, study models, radiographs, and other pertinent data.

The main objective of this year-long seminar-based course is to ensure that students develop the ability to understand biomedical, behavioral and dental sciences and apply such information in a problem- solving context for the comprehensive treatment planning and management of their patients.