course-year: fourth-summer

Dental Urgent and Emergent Care 1

Course Director: Rolf Christensen & Mark Drangsholt
Credits: 2
Quarters/Yr of Program: Summer / 4

Course Overview

This course provides advanced instruction and clinical practice in the diagnosis and management of patients requiring urgent and emergent dental care, as well as patients needing assessment and care in the discipline of oral medicine. The course includes participation in clinical rotations to the Dental Urgent Care Clinic (DUCC), and oral medicine (OMCS) specialty clinics. Students will clinically demonstrate their background in the dental, medical, and basic sciences to/on conditions affecting the head and neck area; they will participate in complex case management.

Learning Objectives

The student who successfully completes this course will be able to:

1. Communicate with patients, including those with diverse cultural backgrounds and patients with special health needs, in a respectful and culturally sensitive manner.
2. Diagnose urgent and emergent problems of the orofacial region.
3. Formulate care plans for urgent and emergent orofacial problems.
4. Manage urgent and emergent orofacial problems including the provision of appropriate referrals.
5. Manage pain, infection, and anxiety with the use of appropriate pharmacological agents.

UWSOD Competencies: C-01, C-10, CE-02, CE-03, C-03, CE-06, C-02, C-09, CE-07, C-06, C-05, C-11, C-30, C-12, C-13, C-31, C-16, C-29, C-17, C-14, C-28, C-04, C-08, C-15, C-18, C-24, C-25, C-26, C-19, C-20, C-21, C-22, C-23, C-27, CE-05

Date last updated: 2026-06-23

Treatment of Patients with Special Needs 1

Course Director: Kimberley Espinoza
Credits: 2
Quarters/ Yr of Program: Summer / 4

Course Overview

Students are exposed to the assessment process and treatment strategies for successful management of patients with developmental and acquired disabilities; geriatric patients; and anxious, fearful, or phobic patients. This is one course in a series of required courses focused on this subject and taken by all fourth-year dental students every quarter.

Learning Objectives

The student who successfully completes this course will be able to:

1. Provide clinical treatment using appropriate facilitation techniques for patients with developmental and acquired disabilities as well as geriatric patients.
2. Assess the needs of patients with special needs, geriatric patients, and dentally fearful patients, including non-dental considerations.
3. Outline the appropriate consent process when providing care for people with communication, cognitive or sensory impairments, patients requiring special care, and geriatric patients.
4. Use oral health social and environmental facilitators for the oral health promotion of patients with special needs.
5. Describe the different categories of dentally fearful individuals and appropriate behavioral management techniques for each patient presentation type.
6. Use appropriate patient facilitation techniques for anxious patients, geriatric patients, and patients with other special needs.
7. Use critical thinking to make case-specific modifications to “ideal” treatment plans for geriatric patients and patients with special needs.
8. Evaluate the need for teamwork and interprofessional liaison in the management of patients requiring special care.
9. Refer or arrange care for patients with complex needs.

UWSOD Competencies: C-10, C-02, C-09, C-06, CE-03, C-03, C-04, C-08, C-15, CE-01, C-14, C-28, C-12, C-13, C-31, C-17, C-05, C-11, C-30, C-18

Date last updated: 2024-07-08

 

Comprehensive General Dentistry 1

Course Director: Andy Marashi & Rachel Greene
Credits: 7
Quarters/Yr of Program: Summer / 4

Course Overview

All students: UWSOD faculty members will mentor and supervise senior dental students in this clinical course that includes all disciplines and phases of general dentistry. Students will develop a sound philosophy of comprehensive patient care applicable to the establishment of a future evidence-based general practice.

Students scheduled for SLR rotation in this quarter (SLR students): SLR students will rotate in a community, tribal dental, or private practice clinic that delivers dental care to patients in need. Under the guidance of a preceptor dentist, these students work as members of the dental team while gaining a better understanding of dental practice.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the course series, students will be able to:

1. Provide evidence-based oral health care through the analysis and use of appropriate scientific and lay literature, and the application of the basic principles of critical thinking and problem-solving to scientific inquiry.
2. Provide oral health care using advanced attributes of professionalism, including self-assessment of the quality of one’s own work, the development of professional
   competencies, and the professional values and capacities associated with dedication to lifelong learning.
3. Apply the biomedical sciences to the delivery of oral health care using basic biological principles to support a high-level explanation of the etiology, epidemiology, differential diagnosis, pathogenesis, prevention, treatment, and prognosis of oral and oral-related disorders.
4. Create patient-centered approaches to comprehensive care using the fundamental principles of behavioral sciences.
5. Manage a diverse patient population using interpersonal and communications skills suitable for a multicultural work environment.
6. Apply legal and regulatory concepts related to the provision and/or support of oral health care services.
7. Apply practice management skills to the provision of patient-centered oral health care.
8. Collaborate with other members of the health care team to provide patient-centered care.
9. Provide oral health care ethically, meeting all expected professional responsibilities.
10. Manage the oral health care needs within the scope of general dentistry–of patients with special needs and patients in all stages of life.
11. Solve complex problems in case management.
12. Effectively diagnose oral and maxillofacial diseases and conditions by performing head-and-neck exams, intraoral examinations, and recall exams; prescribing and evaluating diagnostic radiographic imaging (including CBCT) if needed; and recommending necessary biopsies, referrals, and other special evaluations.
13. Effectively prevent oral and maxillofacial diseases and conditions by incorporating risk assessment and prevention strategies for caries, periodontal disease, head and neck cancer, and other diseases.
14. Manage oral and maxillofacial diseases and conditions to establish and maintain health.
15. Design comprehensive sequenced and staged patient-centered dental treatment plans that address the needs and desires of the dental patient, integrating all dental specialties and other health care referrals into the patient’s oral health care in a coordinated manner.
16. Ensure the continued quality of treatment by performing post-treatment evaluations and end-of-treatment exams.
17. SLR: Apply a team approach to community-based dental care.
18. SLR: Utilize effective four-handed dentistry.
19. SLR: Practice within the community-clinic public health model.
20. SLR: Manage the oral health needs of rural and/or underserved communities within the context of social and cultural factors.
21. SLR: Reflect upon one’s own cultural awareness of rural and/or underserved communities when describing the oral health needs and challenges of the patient population one serves.
22. SLR: Describe the leadership qualities of an effective leader of an oral healthcare team.
23. SLR: Analyze a mission statement.
24. SLR: Compare community health dental practice to private dental practice.
25. SLR: Create an improvement plan for a current clinical-scheduling protocol.

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, CE-01, C-07, CE-04, 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

Date last updated: 2025-07-08