General Practice Residency (GPR) Program FAQ's

The stipend is paid through the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Graduate Medical Education (GME) program. The salary for a PGY1 resident at CU SDM GPR is $62,755/year (2022-2023), which equates to $5,229.58/month.

Each resident will receive the following benefits:

• Medical Insurance
  • In or out-of-network reimbursement options
  • Prescription drug program
• Dental Insurance
  • Preventive, basic and major dental service levels
  • Deductible waived for preventive services
• Vision Care
  • Optional; available to resident and their dependents
  • Through payroll deduction
• Life Insurance
  • Coverage only available to the resident
• Disability Insurance
  • Available beginning at day 91 of disability
  • Monthly benefit based on PGY1 level
  • Coverage only available to the resident
• Professional Liability Coverage
  • For on campus activities related to CU SDM GPR only
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)
• Injury at Work
• Campus parking permit
• $300 in meal tickets ($150/six month period)
• Leave
  • 3 weeks total/year- paid (5 business days with a weekend attached)
    • 2 weeks of vacation
    • 1 week of sick days

Lectures are scheduled from 7:45-8:45 a.m. Clinic is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with lunch from 12-1 p.m. When you are assigned to a rotation, i.e., Oral Surgery, Medicine, Anesthesia, or Emergency Medicine, your hours will vary according to the respective rotation. We do not, routinely, have residents schedule patients in the CU SDM GPR clinic when on an off-service rotation.

CU SDM emergency patients are managed by the GPR residents or pre-doctoral students on rotation in the Student Emergency Clinic.

Residents frequently stay after hours and on weekends to treatment plan cases, enter treatment notes, complete lab work, prepare for procedures, etc.

Each resident is scheduled to be the Primary, or first ‘On-Call” person, every 6 weeks.  Each resident is paired with another resident for the year.  This is a 2 week rotation.  So one week you will be the first ‘On-Call’ resident and the next week you will be second ‘On-Call’ resident.  The ‘On-call’ rotation coincides with the 2 week oral surgery rotation.  

The number of patients treated during the ‘On-Call’ rotation, time commitment for visits will vary. While ‘On-Call’, you must stay in the local area; within 20 minutes of the University of Colorado Hospital (UCH).

In recent years, the cost of dental related laboratory procedures has increased drastically. As a result many dental professionals, including us, have opted to perform some of the lab related services in-house. We ask that you accept the lab related responsibilities with open arms, as it will expedite treatment, provide a better service, reduce our laboratory costs, and provide you with vital knowledge and expertise that will assist you in private practice.

Lab related responsibilities of residents:

• Residents will mount all cases.
• Residents will fabricate their own custom trays.
• Residents will make their own records bases for CD and RPD.
• Residents will pour up all implant impressions.
• Residents will make their own implant radiographic and surgical stents/guides.
• Residents will make their own fluoride and bleach trays.

The residents will attend lectures from attendings on a weekly basis as well as “Lunch and Learns” from vendors about various products, techniques, implant systems, dental equipment, and innovations. Along with these lectures, residents will attend outside seminars including:

• Colorado Prosthodontic Society (6 sessions)
• Oral Pathology
• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Review 
• Interdisciplinary Seminars, weekly
• Rocky Mountain Dental Convention (2 days)

GPR rotations are as follows:

• CU SDM/CU Advanced Dental Care Clinic (Comprehensive Care)
• Anesthesia (80 hours) – at the University of Colorado Hospital, Outpatient Operating Room
• Emergency Department (40 hours)
• Medicine (40 hours) in our Dental Faculty Practice OMFS for History and Physicals. Additional time can be requested in our OMFS Clinic, later in the year.

GPR Curriculum

• Clinical Dentistry and Advanced Treatment Planning
• Inpatient Care/Hospital Administration.
• General Anesthesiology and Sedation Dentistry
• Emergency Medicine
• Trauma and Emergent Dental Care
• Periodontics and Implant Dentistry
• Prosthodontics
• Orthodontics
• Medical Risk Assessment & Oral Medicine
• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
• Special Patient Care/Opening Room Dentistry
• Endodontics
• Ethics

Yes, there is one spot for an optional second year residency. This resident will be the “chief resident” and have higher compensation (commensurate with a PGY2). The second year resident will also complete more complex dental cases than the PGY1 resident, be involved in teaching and complete an independent project.  Interested PGY1 residents, typically apply for the position sometime in February or March. The decision to offer the position is determined by the GPR Admission Committee.

The program’s official start date is July 1st and ends on June 30th (fiscal year). However, the mandatory orientation starts one week prior to July 1st.

Many of our residents perform a variety of periodontal procedures, including, but not limited to grafting, clinical crown lengthening, and gingivectomies. In the event that the periodontal disease and periodontal clinical dental needs are beyond the capacity of the GPR resident, a referral is made to our Graduate Periodontal Program. Each GPR resident is matched with a graduate periodontal resident, which enriches the one year GPR experience, ensures proper handling of cases, increases the variety of exposure, and allows for continuity of care for our patients.

New patients are screened through a school wide screening process. All new patients are assigned to residents based upon availably in each resident’s schedule, as well as, needs and desires expressed by the resident. The majority of patients are seen on a comprehensive care model. GPR does get direct referrals from outside providers. Most of which are for limited care. If the patient is being referred for a specific dental procedure, the resident will treat the patient’s dental need, then refer them back to their referring dentist, for the remainder of their dental care. If the patient is an existing GPR patient, they will be assigned to the new resident, based upon the patient’s needs. We try to spread procedures out among all new residents. The transfer is made to the new resident during orientation. This allows for direct patient discussion between incoming and outgoing residents.

Yes, plain and simple, CU GPR program residents will be performing complex dental treatments including: implant placements/restorations, multiple implant placement with implant retained dentures, anterior/bicuspid/molar root canals, endodontic treatments/retreatments, apicoectomies, periodontal procedures, extractions with bone grafting and tissue regeneration, oral surgery (orthodontic extraction, full mouth extractions with alveoplasty, and complex 3rd molar removal), biopsies, and advanced prosthodontic cases. You will have the opportunity to participate in moderate sedation cases.

• Diagnostic – 4,391
• Preventative – 1,547
• Restorative – 1,659
• Endodontic – 323
• Periodontal – 427
• Removable – 890
• Implant Services – 593
• Fixed Prosthodontics – 111
• Ortho – 6
• Adjustment Services – 1,716

Total – 15,323

We do treat children ages 12 and older in the CU SDM GPR clinic for specialty dental services (endodontics, periodontics, moderate sedation, and oral surgery), but we do not provide comprehensive care to children under the age of 18, in most cases.

We have electronic medical and dental records. We provide both analog and digital dentistry education. We feel it is important to be able to learn as much as you can while you are in the residency.

Yes, each resident averages eight OR days for Full Mouth Dental Rehabilitation cases, averaging three patients each OR day. Hospital dentistry patients are adults with intellectual disabilities, developmentally disabilities and/or medically compromised patients, who are unable to tolerate treatment in a traditional, ambulatory clinical setting. Treatment performed by the resident includes, comprehensive oral and periodontal examinations, full mouth radiographs, dental prophylaxis or scaling/root planning, dental restoration, endodontics, and extractions under general anesthesia. The goal is to complete the patient’s entire dental needs during the one encounter. In addition, we have numerous other OR experiences during the On-Call and OMFS rotations. On-Call patients can be complex inpatients requiring multiple extractions and/or trauma cases, pre-transplant cases or infection cases.

The program accepts six PGY-1 residents each year and offers one optional second year position. On average, we receive approximately 120 applicants each year. We interview approximately 40 candidates from the applicant pool.