Division of Operative Dentistry

Division Chief

The Division of Operative Dentistry provides preclinical and clinical instruction to predoctoral and postdoctoral students in the discipline of contemporary operative dentistry. Operative Dentistry is the branch of dentistry that deals with the art and science of diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and prognosis of diseases or trauma of the dentition. Operative dentistry is indicated for dental caries; malformed, discolored, or fractured teeth; and replacement or repair of existing restorations, restored to proper morphology, esthetics, and function.

Education

The Division is involved in all four years of predoctoral education. The Division is responsible for the organization and training of predoctoral preclinical students in semesters one through four, in Operative Dentistry. Faculty of the division lecture and supervise the basic didactic instruction and technique for diagnosis and treatment planning for tooth restoration, dental materials, the amalgam and composite direct restoration, the gold and ceramic indirect inlay and onlay restoration, porcelain veneer indirect restorations, esthetic dentistry, and caries management by risk assessment.

The Division of Operative Dentistry is responsible for the organization and supervision of clinical patient care in semesters five through eight. The divisional faculty teach the courses in intermediate and advanced diagnosis and treatment planning in years three and four, literature review seminars and case presentations in year four. In the intermediate and advanced Clinical Practice of Dentistry, the faculty of the Division of Operative Dentistry serve as group leaders for the third and fourth year predoctoral students and supervise the oral health care delivery in the general practice comprehensive care clinics.

Operative Dentistry is one the clinical disciplines that combine with the basic sciences to produce a competent general dentist at the conclusion of the predoctoral curriculum at the College of Dental Medicine.

Patient Care

Many of our faculty are practicing dentists with Columbia Doctors/Dentistry, the faculty practice of the College of Dental Medicine.

The Division of Operative Dentistry also provides specialty treatment at the College of Dental Medicine's Teaching Clinics. Graduate dentists in specialty training provide care with the assistance and supervision of faculty specialists.