ALASKA

Carrying on its decade-long mission to break traditional boundaries, the dental educational programs of Lutheran Medical Center have reached the far north of the United States. In this effort, the Department of Dental Medicine has allied itself with Native-owned and Indian Health Service programs to provide oral health care to some of the most underserved communities in the United States. Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium is a non-profit tribal health consortium of 18 Native communities which serves the health interests of the Tlingit, Haida, Tsimpshean, and other Native people of Southeast Alaska. The consortium is one of the oldest and largest Native-run health organizations in the nation and is accredited by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). The dental department has clinics located in Juneau, Sitka (a hospital-based clinic), Haines, Klukwan, and Klawock. The department also serves the villages of Kake, Hoonah, Hydaburg, Tenakee, Yakutat, Pelican, and Angoon with field trips throughout the year. Dental residents will become part of the staff in the newly remodeled 12-chair dental clinic in Juneau. The dental staff provides all phases of general dentistry, including routine oral surgery. The Juneau staff includes five general dentists and dental specialists in orthodontics, prosthodontics, endodontics, and pediatric dentistry. Additionally there are two dental hygienists and nine dental assistants. Residents will have the opportunity to provide all phases of general dentistry in the beautiful setting of Southeast Alaska.

Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation ( YKHC ) in Bethel, Alaska is Federally funded through the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, as well as other funds. Accredited by the JCAHO, the health center is a regional hospital for 48 surrounding villages. The service population is approximately 27,000 with 89 percent of the people in the region being Yupik, Cupik, and Athabaskan. The service area encompasses 75,000 square miles and is approximately the size of Oregon. The YKHC provides a broad range of health care services including family medicine, pediatrics, oral health, optometry, physical therapy, behavioral health, and specialty services. It has a modern 14-operatory dental clinic with state-of-the-art digital x-ray and electronic charting. The clinic has 18,000 to 20,000 patient visits a year. The hospital operating room is used for pediatric and debilitated patients requiring full-mouth dental rehabilitation. The service area also includes four sub-regional clinics with two to four fixed operatories, 18 single fixed operatories in surrounding village clinics, and 10 sets of portable dental gear. The staff includes 10 general dentists, a pediatric dentist, a part-time orthodontist, 14 part-time dentists, three dental hygienists, 22 dental assistants, and seven supporting staff members. Dental teams travel throughout the year to provide dental services to village residents. The dental program is currently expanding endodontic care and developing implant placement and prosthodontic services. The AEGD resident can expect a great cultural experience while providing a wide range of general dentistry, as well as focusing on oral surgery, pediatrics, and orthodontics.

Pediatric Dentistry in the Far North

The Alaska Native Medical Center ( ANMC ) is a plum of the Indian Health Service family of hospitals, and home to the Alaska site of the Lutheran Medical Center’s pediatric dental residency program. There are two positions available at this site. Situated in beautiful Anchorage, it is a tertiary care hospital and certified trauma treatment center serving the entire state of Alaska. Drawing on this large patient base allows ANMC dental residents a broad scope of patient treatment experiences including both healthy and medically compromised patients, trauma, patients with all variety of behavioral concerns, and orthodontic patients.

Alaska Natives have one of the highest dental disease rates of any population in the country. This problem, combined with the challenges of working with patients and families of a different culture, makes for an exciting and dynamic practice. The dental program is large with a staff of over 30 dentists, 100 ancillary providers and support staff, and 50 chairs. This well funded program recently converted to “paperless” electronic charting and digital radiography, and renovated clinic space to achieve eight “quiet rooms” for treatment of pediatric patients. Specialists in pediatric dentistry, orthodontics, oral surgery, and endodontics are on staff. The program has working relationships with a periodontist and prosthodontist as part of an Advanced General Practice Residency Program, which also exists on site. The program is managed by the Native nonprofit Southcentral Health Corporation. The corporation also manages two Head Start programs in town, each with its own on-site dental clinic, where our pediatric staff takes an occasional field trip.

The ANMC dental department has a dedicated operating room complete with dental suction, digital radiography, and quadraphonic sound stereo system. The program runs a five-chair orthodontic clinic with one orthodontist on staff and a second currently in training. The pediatric dental staff provides a full range of services including: prevention, orthodontics, space maintenance, emergency care, treatment with traditional behavior management techniques, nitrous oxide, oral sedation, and general anesthesia for patients from birth to 18 years and mentally handicapped adults. The facility houses ample office space for residents (complete with desktop computers, internet, email, and telephone), a dedicated video teleconference room, and a library containing many recent dental and medical texts and journals. The nearby University of Alaska, Anchorage has a much more extensive library also available.

America's Last Frontier

Alaska was settled over thousands of years by the peaceful Aleut, in the Aleutian Islands; the Eskimo or Inuit along the northern and western coasts; the Athabaskan along the Yukon River; and the Tlingit in the Panhandle of the southeast. Over the course of less than a century, Russia, Great Britain, Spain, and the United States exploited the people and hunting, explored the land, and competed with each other. After the Civil War and secret negotiations with Russia, Secretary of State William Seward completed the purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million in 1867.

Only the Tlingit hunted and fished the coastline of what is now Juneau when prospectors arrived in 1880. The ensuing great gold mines operated continuously through most of World War II. Juneau became the capital of the Alaska territory in 1906; today, it is modern, affluent, and home to the respected Alaska State Museum. Landlocked in the Inside Passage, Juneau nestles between Mt. Juneau and the Gastineau Channel. Tourism is the major private industry catering to visitors to the Tongass National Forest, Inside Passage, and The Mendenhall Glacier, a few miles from downtown and the threshold to a spectacle of mountains and glaciers within a 1,500-square-mile radius. Juneau has a mild, maritime climate. Average summer temperatures range from 44 to 65; winter temperatures range from 25 to 35. It is in the mildest climate zone in Alaska. Annual precipitation is 92 inches in downtown Juneau, and 54 inches ten miles north at the airport. Snowfall averages 101 inches.

Bethel is the largest bush community in Alaska with a population of about 6,000 people. It is located at the mouth of the Kuskokwim River, about 40 miles east of the Bering Sea. Bethel has been a long-standing Eskimo trading center and remains an important center for the Yupik culture and transportation center for more than 50 Native villages. Almost 70 percent of the population is Native or part-Native and traditional Yupik practices and language predominate in the area. Bethel is home to the Kuskokwim campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The town is surrounded by the 20 million-acre Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, one of the largest shorebird breeding areas in North America and where more than 40 species of fish spawn and grow. The refuge is accessible by small aircraft for hunting, fishing, and photography. There are daily flights to Anchorage. Precipitation averages 16 inches a year in this area, with snowfall of 50 inches. Summer temperatures range from 62 to 42; winter temperatures average 19 to -2.

Anchorage sits at the head of Cook Inlet in southcentral Alaska and is the largest city in Alaska. Fully one-half of the state’s population lives in the city. The discovery of gold and construction of the Federal Alaska Railway triggered the “Great Anchorage Lot Sale” in 1915, which shaped the future of the city. Today it is the economic hub of Alaska supporting industry, services, tourism, government, and military. The city’s cultural history is rich, diverse, and respectful of traditions. Its citizens enjoy downhill and cross-country skiing, ice hockey, fishing, golf, swimming, hiking, biking, and camping. Overlooked by the lovely Chugach Mountains, Denali National Park and Preserve and Mount McKinley lay to the south. The average temperatures in January range from 8 to 21 degrees Fahrenheit. In July, average temperatures range from 51 to 65 degrees. Annual precipitation is 15.9 inches and annual snowfall is 69 inches.

Contact Information

Dr. Anna D'Emilio DDS
Director, AEGD Program
1 718 630 7213

James Carlos Singleton DDS
Pediatric Alaska Associate Director
1 907 729 2036