Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD)
Postdoctoral Residency Program

Applications open now for 2024-2025 residency year

Program Overview

A Unique Collaborative Program in a Nonprofit Atmosphere

Apple Tree Dental’s AEGD residency program operates in affiliation with NYU Langone Dental Medicine Postdoctoral Residency Programs (NYU Langone Dental Medicine) to offer an accredited AEGD program.  This program gives two residents a one-year training opportunity at Apple Tree’s Mounds View Center for Dental Health, which is located just ten minutes north of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

As a nonprofit community clinic and critical access provider, Apple Tree addresses the unmet dental care needs of underserved individuals of all ages and abilities, and provides a dental home for many low-income children and families, adults with disabilities, persons with mental health conditions, veterans, frail elders, and others with special needs.  Approximately 80% of Apple Tree’s patients are on medical assistance programs.  Apple Tree has accessible treatment rooms, oral surgery suites equipped with IV sedation & general anesthesia capabilities, and adjacent recovery areas.

Graduates of this program become more confident practitioners with bright futures in private practice, community clinics, and public health settings, or may go on to specialty training or to careers in academic dentistry.  The residents’ confidence in their diagnostic and restorative skills, as well as their ability to interact with others across the health care spectrum in obtaining useful medical consultations and making necessary referrals, will mature exponentially over the residency year!  Equally, the residents’ self-assurance in individualizing preventive oral health plans and communicating proficiently with a wide range of patients and educating them will become second nature.  They will receive experiences in assessing and managing dental trauma, and become adept and efficient at managing patients’ dental pain and infections.  During the residency year, the residents will complete the care required for numerous and various comprehensive cases for children and adults.

Apple Tree Dental’s AEGD residency program operates in affiliation with NYU Langone Dental Medicine Postdoctoral Residency Programs (NYU Langone Dental Medicine) to offer an accredited AEGD program.  This program gives two residents a one-year training opportunity at either Apple Tree’s Mounds View Center for Dental Health, which is located just ten minutes north of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, or at Apple Tree’s Fergus Falls Center for Dental Health, which is located in a beautiful rural location in Otter Tail County.

As a nonprofit community clinic and critical access provider, Apple Tree addresses the unmet dental care needs of underserved individuals of all ages and abilities, and provides a dental home for many low-income children and families, adults with disabilities, persons with mental health conditions, veterans, frail elders, and others with special needs.  Approximately 80% of Apple Tree’s patients are on medical assistance programs.  Apple Tree has accessible treatment rooms, oral surgery suites equipped with IV sedation & general anesthesia capabilities, and adjacent recovery areas.

Graduates of this program become more confident practitioners with bright futures in private practice, community clinics, and public health settings, or may go on to specialty training or to careers in academic dentistry.  The residents’ confidence in their diagnostic and restorative skills, as well as their ability to interact with others across the health care spectrum in obtaining useful medical consultations and making necessary referrals, will mature exponentially over the residency year!  Equally, the residents’ self-assurance in individualizing preventive oral health plans and communicating proficiently with a wide range of patients and educating them will become second nature.  They will receive experiences in assessing and managing dental trauma, and become adept and efficient at managing patients’ dental pain and infections.

Location

Enriching Experiences in Beautiful Places

Minnesota is affectionately known as the “North Star State” and the “Land of 10,000 Lakes.”  With a population of roughly 5.6 million residents, Minnesota has a high standard of living, a great education system and beautiful natural scenery.  Minnesota boasts a number of exciting things to do outdoors and has 66 state parks, Voyager National Park, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and more than 4,000 campsites. Its oldest state park was established in 1891 at Lake Itasca, the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Several scenic roadways provide breathtaking views of the river bluffs and natural habitat of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, the “North Shore” of Lake Superior, and beautiful vistas of Minnesota’s southern farming region, and the pine and deciduous tree forests and lakes of northern MN.

During spring, summer and fall, Minnesotans enjoy lake time and activities such as water skiing, boating, kayaking, canoeing, fishing, and more.  Hiking and biking opportunities are never scarce, particularly with a number of designated paths throughout the metropolitan area. Minneapolis is known as the “City of Lakes” and boasts miles of pathways connecting all the lakes for eager bikers and hikers. In the wintertime, Minnesotans engage in ice and snow sports, including skating, skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, ice fishing, hockey, curling, and more. 

 

Mounds View Center

Apple Tree’s Mounds View Center for dental health is only 15 minutes north of Minneapolis and St. Paul (also referred to as the “Twin Cities”). The Twin Cities metropolitan area, with a population of 3.6 million, is a center for business, industry, education, government, art, and transportation. It has a vibrant theater scene, as well as an impressive collection of eateries, breweries, and distilleries to satisfy any palette and budget. The Twin Cities are also home to the University of Minnesota and Golden Gopher athletic teams, and several professional sport teams, including the Twins (baseball), the Vikings (football), the Timberwolves (men’s basketball), the Lynx (women’s basketball), the Wild (hockey), and Minnesota United (soccer).

Near the Mounds View Center, residents can expect to find safe, quiet residential areas and easy driving access to freeways and highways. There is a public library, movie theater, bowling alley, community center, police station, coffee shop, grocery store, pharmacy, and a number of restaurants, all within walking distance to the Mounds View Center for Dental Health.

Watch the video to see a tour of our Mounds View Center!

FERGUS FALLS CENTER - Starting in July 2022!

Apple Tree Dental is proud to announce that our second AEGD Residency site, located in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, will be starting with our first residents in July 2022.  This program will match the quality of the Mounds View Center program, but in a gorgeous rural location.  

Fergus Falls is located in Ottertail County, approximately 2.5 hours northwest of Minneapolis, just off Interstate 94, in beautiful rural Minnesota.  Near to many of Minnesota’s quality lakes, Fergus Falls has a population of 13,797 residents, and has several restaurants and shops.  It is less than an hour from the Fargo-Moorhead metropolitan area, and major colleges and universities, such as North Dakota State University and Rasmussen University in Fargo; North Dakota State College of Sciences in Wahpeton; and Minnesota State University and Concordia College in Moorhead.

Near the Fergus Falls Center, you will find safe, quiet residential areas and easy driving access to freeways, highways, and county roads.  The clinic is within walking distance or a short drive from a number of restaurants, bar and grills, pharmacies, grocery and home improvement stores, coffee shops, boutiques, a children’s museum, public library, movie theater, police station, golf course, and several city and state parks.  There are also countless lakes in the region, which host walking and biking trails.  Other activities include the I-94 Speedway stockcar racing track, and the Center of the Arts, which is home to concerts, movies, plays, exhibits, and more.  Fergus Falls is also home to a historic state hospital, built in the Kirkbride style, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.  Additional information about Fergus Falls can be found at the Chamber of Commerce website at www.fergusfalls.com, or refer to https://ottertaillakescountry.com.  

Fergus Falls Building

Check out our video to see a quick virtual tour of the new, state-of-the-art Fergus Falls Center for Dental Health.

Faculty overview

Skilled Dentist Mentors from Different Disciplines

Residents at Apple Tree Dental work with highly skilled faculty to perform a myriad of dental care services across the dental disciplines, except orthodontics.  Residents can expect to enhance and expand upon their skills acquired in dental school through the provision of advanced services in pediatric dentistry, periodontics, endodontics, fixed and removable prosthodontics, operative, oral surgery, oral medicine, and implant restoration.  Residents will receive experiences in the delivery of dental care services for patients undergoing IV sedation and observe care delivery to children undergoing general anesthesia.  

Through this program, residents gain unique experiences working with a large team of clinicians dedicated to serving patients with a broad spectrum of needs. 

Under the supervision of Drs. Christine Foulkes, Teresa Johnson, and all faculty, residents see a wide variety of patients of all ages, including those with special health care needs and access to care challenges. They will gain experience in all aspects of general dentistry, including restorative, fixed and removal prosthodontics, implant restoration, endodontics (including molars), and oral surgery (including third molar extractions). They will also treat patients under IV sedation in conjunction with faculty members. Individualized mentoring is provided by experienced, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic faculty dentists. This program also includes a strong didactic component developed by NYU Langone Dental Medicine.

Dr. Teresa Johnson – Apple Tree’s Residency Program Site Director

Dr. Christine Foulkes - Assistant Site Director and Director of Special Needs

Mounds View Faculty

Dr. Nathaniel Cook - Director of Pediatrics

Dr. Ali Mohebbi - Implantologist, General Dentist with Advanced Skills in Oral Surgery and IV Sedation

Dr. Nathalie Astudillo - General Dentist

Dr. Franklin Steen - General Dentist

Dr. Kathryn Anderson - General Dentist

Dr. Jayne Cernohous - General Dentist

Dr. Sara Mogensen - General Dentist

Dr. Quentin Knutson - Pediatric Dentist

Fergus Falls Faculty

Dr. Ashok Gorrepati - Assistant Site Director and General Dentist

Dr. Kalyan Kondreddi - General Dentist

Dr. Kavya Simhadri - General Dentist

Dr. Wayne Christianson - General Dentist

State-of-the-Art Technology

Apple Tree Dental has state-of-the-art facilities available for residents.  Some of the technologies available to the residents include:

  • Synchronous and Asynchronous Teledentistry
  • Cone-Beam Computed Tomography 
  • WaveOne® rotary endodontic system, and GuttaCore warm obturators 
  • Elements™ IC Obturation System (Kavo Kerr)
  • SonicFill™ bulk fill composite resin system
  • CariVu™ caries detection device (DEXIS)
  • VELscope® Vx System – an oral cancer screening device
  • Pioneer Elite™ Diode (Soft Tissue) Laser
  • Piezosurgery® – ultrasonic means to perform osteotomy and osteoplasty procedures (Mectron)
  • Electrosurgery unit
  • Zimmer Biomet implant system
  • Alginate-only impression technique for removable prosthodontic cases (residents become proficient in complete denture fabrication).
  • EHR called “Open Dental” – an open source dental record system
  • Patient Safe Handling Equipment:
    • DentalEz dental chair with air-glide base for easy maneuvering & ergonomics
    • Liko Lift (Adaptive Specialties) and GoLift Patient Lift (Amico) Overhead Lift Systems – to facilitate safe transfers of wheelchair dependent patients to/from a dental chair
  • Equipment in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic (for patient & staff safety):
    • ADS Extraoral Dental Suction System – Residents will use this extraoral suctioning unit whenever dental procedures creating aerosols are performed. It has HEPA filtration & UV light to mitigate aerosols and purify the treatment room air.
    • Needlepoint Bipolar Ionization Technology – a system added to the clinic HVAC system to improve air quality and purify the air.
    • PPE: N95 Respirators, ASTM Level 1, 2 and 3 surgical masks, face shields, insolation gowns, hair bonnets, etc.

Interested? Apply now for the 2024-2025 residency year.

For more information about our programs, visit https://www.lmcdental.org/programs/mn/apple-tree-dental/aegd or contact Chandra Stapher (cstapher@appletreedental.org).

Download the 2022 Apple Tree Dental AEGD Program informational flyer.