Restorative Dentistry Clinic
Course Director(s): Sami Dogan & John Yae
Credits: 12 (Earned over three quarters)
Quarters/Yr of Program: Autumn, Winter, Spring / 3
Course Overview
This integrated clinical course prepares third-year DDS students to provide comprehensive, person-centered restorative care. The course develops competency in patient assessment, diagnosis, risk assessment, treatment planning, and delivering preventive, operative, prosthodontic, and implant-related care. The course emphasizes evidence-based clinical decision-making, multidisciplinary treatment planning and coordination, management of increasingly complex restorative needs, effective communication, and progressive development of clinical independence.
Learning Objectives
The student who successfully completes this course will be able to:
- Perform a comprehensive patient history and clinical examination, including head and neck, intraoral, dental, periodontal, and occlusal examinations.
- Differentiate normal clinical and radiographic anatomy from pathology and identify conditions requiring further evaluation, referral, or co-management.
- Identify oral health risk factors and incorporate caries, periodontal disease, oral cancer, dietary, salivary, and other relevant risk assessments into patient care.
- Interpret biopsychosocial factors and assess their impact on oral health, treatment planning, treatment acceptance, and the delivery of patient-centered care.
- Prescribe, obtain, and interpret appropriate oral and maxillofacial radiographs, including CBCT when indicated, to support diagnosis and treatment planning.
- Identify urgent treatment needs and establish appropriate priorities for disease control, prevention, restorative treatment, prosthodontic rehabilitation, and maintenance.
- Develop, compare, and communicate comprehensive, multidisciplinary, person-centered, sequenced, and staged treatment plans that reflect each patient’s health status, needs, desires, expectations, and financial circumstances.
- Use patient assessment, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment-planning processes to provide comprehensive restorative care.
- Determine the restorability and prognosis of individual teeth, existing restorations, and the overall dentition.
- Diagnose and manage caries, defective or failing restorations, root caries, partially or fully edentulous conditions, occlusal discrepancies, and relevant soft-tissue conditions.
- Perform evidence-based disease-control, preventive, chemotherapeutic, and restorative therapies appropriate to the patient’s diagnosis and caries susceptibility.
- Perform and interpret caries-risk assessments using the current ADA Caries Risk Assessment Form and explain the clinical implications of differing levels of caries risk.
- Select appropriate restorative materials, procedures, and techniques based on clinical findings, scientific evidence, functional and esthetic requirements, and patient-specific factors.
- Perform direct restorative procedures within the scope of operative dentistry, including Class II amalgam restorations; Class III and IV resin composite restorations; complex restorations; core build-ups; root-caries restorations; and crown repairs, with increasing clinical independence.
- Diagnose, treatment plan, and provide appropriate restorative and prosthodontic care for patients with partially or fully edentulous conditions.
- Explain the role of dental implants in the rehabilitation of partially and fully edentulous patients and incorporate implant treatment options into comprehensive patient care when indicated.
- Describe the indications for therapeutic acrylic occlusal splints and provide appropriate occlusal treatment when indicated.
- Apply dental digital technologies, including CAD/CAM systems, digital scanning, and digital planning tools, in the planning, design, and treatment of teeth, implants, and fixed and removable prostheses, when appropriate.
- Perform appropriate tissue-management procedures, including tissue-retraction techniques and electrosurgery, in support of restorative and prosthodontic treatment.
- Integrate relevant contributions from periodontics, endodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, oral medicine, and other dental specialties into comprehensive restorative and prosthodontic treatment plans.
- Manage restorative, prosthodontic, implant, and multidisciplinary cases of increasing complexity; recognize personal limitations; and seek faculty guidance, consultation, or referral when indicated.
- Assess the impact of systemic health conditions on oral health care and the effect of oral conditions on general health to promote patient safety and well-being.
- Communicate effectively and respectfully with patients, faculty, staff, peers, and other health-care professionals.
- Demonstrate ethical, legal, and professional conduct in all patient-care activities, including accurate documentation, informed consent, patient confidentiality, and appropriate clinical decision-making.
- Provide current, evidence-based restorative and prosthodontic care through critical evaluation and application of relevant scientific literature.
- Demonstrate self-directed learning, prepare appropriately for clinical experiences, accurately self-assess clinical performance, incorporate feedback, and develop strategies for continuous improvement.
UWSOD Competencies: C-01, C-10, C-02, C-09, CE-07, C-06, CE-02, CE-03, C-03, CE-06, C-04, C-08, C-15, C-07, C-14, C-28, C-12, C-13, C-31, C-16, C-29, C-17, C-05, C-11, C-30, C-24, C-19, C-20, C-21, C-22, C-23, C-27, CE-05
Date last updated: 2026-10-06