NORTHWEST DENTAL RESIDENCY (AEGD)

 

Overview

Northwest Dental Residency offers a one-year residency beginning the first part of July. You will be part of busy, challenging practices that serve people living in the Washington State communities of Yakima, Toppenish, Grandview, and Spokane.

You will work with an energetic faculty gaining experience in endodontics, periodontics, oral medicine, pediatric dentistry, prosthetics, sedation techniques, restorative dentistry, oral surgery, 3D dentistry, and practice management.

Our residents work with a variety of patients, including those who are medically compromised, phobic patients, and individuals with developmental disabilities.

Residents will have the opportunity to work on in their clinic placement home sites treating a variety of patients, including pediatric patients; additional scheduled Clinical Experiences will introduce you to different aspects of Dentistry, together with your daily clinical schedules. Residents also attend didactic sessions that will further enhance your professional knowledge. Residents should be amenable to traveling at times for scheduled events; the program pays travel costs.

Philosophy

We believe in the right to wellness for all in a comprehensive, preventative approach to health. We value cultural diversity and teamwork, and we respect the dignity of our clients, patients, and residents. The selection process for our program is in compliance with federal, state, and local non-discrimination policies. All candidates are judged according to the merits of their own application packages.

Program Mission

Our mission is to advance oral health by providing high-quality, comprehensive, and patient-centered dental care in underserved communities while fostering excellence in advanced general dentistry education. Through a decentralized model within Federally Qualified Health Centers, we prepare residents to deliver evidence-based care, embrace cultural diversity, engage in lifelong learning, and collaborate effectively within interdisciplinary health care teams to improve access and equity in oral health.

Program Goals

• Deliver comprehensive, evidence-based dental care to a wide variety of patients while fostering advanced clinical competencies, ethical practice, and interprofessional collaboration
• Effectively manage the delivery of oral health care by integrating patient-centered practice management principles and continuous quality improvement strategies, ensuring adaptability to evolving health care systems and environments
• Function effectively and efficiently across diverse health care environments by fostering collaboration within interdisciplinary teams, promoting adaptability, and ensuring integration of comprehensive oral health care into broader patient-centered care models
• Apply scientific principles to both learning and clinical practice by fostering critical thinking, evidence-based and outcomes-driven decision-making, and proficiency in utilizing technology-based information retrieval systems to support comprehensive oral health care
• Commitment to professional ethics, lifelong learning, and patient-centered care while promoting adaptability and cultural competence to deliver equitable, high-quality oral health care in diverse practice settings
• Understand community oral health needs and engage in community service to improve access and promote oral health

Patients

The patient population varies by program site but can be broadly defined as low-income and underserved patients of all ages. Our patients are primarily Hispanic, Spanish-speaking migrant/seasonal farmworkers, and their family members. However, Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinics serve patients from a wide variety of races, ethnicities, and cultures. The patients served at our clinics often cannot access dental care anywhere else. The majority of our patients are on Medicaid or have no dental insurance, many of whom are living below the federal poverty level. For more information about our patients, view patient information in our Community Report.

Qualifications

Northwest Dental Residency’s AEGD program is open to graduates of CODA accredited dental schools. (See PASS for specific program requirements.) Candidates must possess a DDS or DMD degree or equivalent prior to beginning the program.