Program Requirements for Certificate in Prosthodontics
The curriculum has been designed according to the to accreditation standards which dictate that at least 60% of the educational experience must be devoted to patient contact and laboratory procedures and at least 30% to didactic instruction and research. Based on that, the program’s curriculum consists of the follow components:
Clinical
Residents of the Advanced Specialty Education Program in Prosthodontics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine have the opportunity to see and treat patients with a variety of complex needs in state-of-the-art clinical faculties. The Program’s clinical activities are held in three treatment centers/clinics:
- The Advanced Prosthodontics Clinical Center (APCC) inside Penn Dental Medicine on the third floor Robert Schattner Center – The APCC is the first prosthodontic clinic fully equipped with dental microscopes. Restorative and surgical procedures will be performed supervised by experienced prosthodontic faculty members.
- The Corporal Michael J. Crescenz Philadelphia VA Medical Center
- The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (for the Maxillofacial rotation)
The goal of the off-site rotations is to maximize the learning clinical experience by exposing the residents to diverse clinical settings and patients’ pools.
Laboratory
The techniques will include fixed, removable, implant and digital prosthodontics; occlusion; and CAD/CAM techniques. The Penn Dental Medicine CAD/CAM Center facilities and equipment will prepare the students/residents to experience the potentials of digital dentistry in prosthodontics and become competent in digital laboratory workflow.
Teaching in predoctoral courses/clinic (as faculty or lecturer)
The goal of teaching in predoctoral courses is to give the student/resident experience in dental teaching at the undergraduate level. The objective of this experience is to provide exposure to the decision making process where the student/resident is the final authority rather than the student. An additional objective is to allow the student/resident to be exposed to standardized methods of teaching/learning and foster an interest in academics.
Research
The research component of the program is through the Master of Science in Oral Biology program.
Didactic
The courses are presented by means of lecture, seminar, literature review, demonstration and laboratory. They are spread-out throughout the three-year long specialty program and they are part of the prosthodontic certificate program, the master’s degree program, and the core curriculum for basic sciences.