General Practice Residency Program

General Practice Residency

The General Practice Residency (GPR) Program is a 12-month certificate program with an optional second-year.

Graduates of the GPR program have gone onto private practices in general dentistry, continued with advanced dental training, run hospital-based and community dental programs, work for the military and veterans affairs medical centers, taken federal government administrative positions, and obtained full and part-time academic positions in dental schools.

The educational program includes rotations to specialized sites affiliated with the UNC Adams School of Dentistry and UNC Hospitals. The primary clinical training sites for the program include the dental services of the UNC Hospitals and UNC Adams School of Dentistry and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. Additional rotations during the first year of the program include two weeks each with Medicine and Anesthesiology at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Durham and UNC Hospitals.

The GPR Program is accredited by the American Dental Association’s Commission on Dental Accreditation.

  • Click here to visit our UNC HealthCare Dental Clinic website
  • Click here to visit the UNC Medical Center website
  • Click here to visit the Durham Veterans Affairs website
  • Click here to visit the Carolina Dentistry Geriatrics/Special-Needs Dentistry website

Admissions Information

Application Deadline: October 15

Applicants must utilize the Postdoctoral Application Support Service (PASS) administered by the American Dental Education Association.

Click here to access the PASS application materials and instructions.

The Adams School of Dentistry does not employ “in-state” quotas; all candidates are reviewed on a competitive basis.

Offers of admissions for our non-dental match based residency will be made on a rolling basis until the class is full.

Admission criteria are applied equally to all applicants regardless of race, sex, color, national origin or religion. Minority students are encouraged to apply.

Contacts

For additional information about the admissions process, please contact:

Megan Noble
GPR Program Coordinator
(919) 537-3719 | megan_noble@unc.edu

Admission Requirements

Admission requires graduation and receipt of a DDS or DMD degree from a U.S. or Canadian dental school accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation of the American Dental Association.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens or U.S. resident aliens, and be eligible for a North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiner’s Intern Permit or a full non-restricted North Carolina Dental License.

Each applicant must complete background check questions and return them to the program director.

Tuition, Stipend Support and Benefits

The General Practice Residency Certificate program at the University of North Carolina School of Dentistry does not charge students for tuition and fees.

Malpractice insurance premiums for all residents are paid dental school resources. Health insurance options are available through UNC Hospitals Graduate Medical Education Department.

Residents receive Freedom Pay meal voucher reimbursement related to on-call service at UNC Health.

Fifteen work days of paid time off are included each year.

Curriculum

Residents will gain confidence in treating a wide variety of patients through actually caring for them under the guidance of a diverse and well-qualified faculty.

The clinical program provides experiences in clinical dentistry, dental teams and four-handed dentistry, operating rooms, interdisciplinary teams and medically-complex care.

The didactic curriculum is composed of a series of seminars and lectures by faculty experts from the dental and medical schools, and resident literature reviews.

The program provides residents with:

  • Graduated responsibility in order to develop increased efficiency in dental practice
  • Experience in the care of medically complex patients throughout a complete care “episode”
  • Education in efforts to provide a safe and positive patient experience in the practice
  • Exposure to the operations of a hospital dental practice with complex patients, many of whom have urgent needs
  • Experience using dental information technology

Residents serve as Chief Resident during the second year of the program and participate in program administration and clinical instruction. Residents also provide after-hours and weekend emergency dental coverage for UNC Health, averaging one out of every three to four days on first or second call.

Contact Us

Questions?

Program Director, Lauren Patton, DDS
Email: lauren_patton@unc.edu
Phone: (919) 537-3582