About LMC Dental –
A History of Breaking Boundaries

Ready for the real world of dentistry? Find out with the LMC Dental Program.
You’ll surpass your peers on the road to success with more hands-on knowledge
and necessary skills to succeed in a constantly changing global health care
environment.

LMC Dental is the educational sponsor of postdoctoral dental residency training
programs accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation of the American
Dental Association. In 2010, The LMC Dental residency training network
educated nearly 200 dental residents, with over 130 dental residents in extramural
training sites across the country and around the world.

For nearly 40 years, LMC Dental’s pioneering “dental institution without
walls” has trained dental residents in one- or two-year programs. True to its
mission, LMC Dental’s goal is ensure access and equity in oral health care for
all underserved communities around the globe. During each year of training, a
general and specialty dental resident will conduct approximately 1,500 patient
procedures.

Currently, we offer five programs in the following dental specialties. We
launched our first program in 1974 and have added four more since then—and
we’re still growing:

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

• 1974 – General Practice Residency (GPR)
• 1988 – Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD)
• 1994 – Pediatric Dentistry
• 2004 – Endodontics
• 2008 – Anesthesiology
• 2012 – Periodontics (COMING SOON)

Whatever dental specialty you pursue, nothing can prepare you for the challenges
of launching and managing your own practice like the real-world experience
you’ll gain with the LMC Dental program. You’ll complete our program with
a greater sense of certainty and confidence in how to treat a full spectrum of
patients and their unique oral medical challenges. Unlike any other dental
residency program, with LMC Dental, you will be exposed to treating a broad
range of complex conditions and medically compromise patients…and you will
know exactly what to do.

In addition to real-world education, only LMC Dental gives you the unique
advantage of learning from the largest program of its kind in the world with the
mentoring of accomplished faculty members in a global network of clinics. When
you complete the program, you’ll be joining our esteemed alumni who continue to
distinguish themselves in practices and dental associations around the world.

Our Commitment to Community Caring

LMC Dental continually strengthens its commitment to care for underserved
communities by pioneering and forging collaborative alliances and partnerships
with community health centers and other public agencies. Community Health
Centers (CHC) and Indian Health Services (IHS) around the world have searched
for relief from chronic dental workforce shortages occurring in urban and rural
geographic areas. Through these partnerships and an innovative educational
model, LMC Dental has developed a service-learning environment – one that
provides a yearly stipend while you learn and work.

As an LMC Dental resident, you will be matched to a Community Health Center
that meets your needs within the Lutheran Healthcare Network. Your program
will be comprised of either one or two years of clinical and didactic training as
you provide oral health care to the most vulnerable populations in the world.

As part of Lutheran Healthcare, Lutheran Medical Center is also part of broader
mission to serve our neighbors.

Our Commitment to Community and Education

Founded in 1883 by Norwegian Lutheran Deaconess-Nurse, Sister Elisabeth Fedde, Lutheran HealthCare built a tradition of community service dedicated to compassionate care for struggling new immigrants in a neighborhood economically based on the Brooklyn waterfront. Lutheran works in partnership with its neighbors, each relying on the other as friends who care about and assist each other.
Lutheran HealthCare has achieved its goal to become a nationally recognized community-based teaching health care system. It includes Lutheran Medical Center–a 476 bed, Level I trauma hospital, the Augustana Lutheran Nursing Home, an innovative managed care program, the comprehensive Family Health Centers, and many outreach programs that are models in education, clinical care, and community service.
The Medical Center is the heart of a health system that anticipates and meets the rapidly changing needs of a multicultural community. Lutheran Medical Center, as part of an integrated health care system, understands a hospital not as just a collection of buildings, machines, and beds but as a staff of talented, creative, and committed people who serve the community as needed. Lutheran’s staff is culturally sensitive and linguistically competent, and many live in and near the communities it serves. At the same time, Lutheran developed an equal commitment to excellence in health professions education. In recent decades, Lutheran aggressively volunteered as a significant corporate presence in the community to stimulate renewal and constructive change, and to advocate for the health and well being of an entire urban area, Southwest Brooklyn.

A Mission to Serve

With a continuing commitment to the highest standards of care, Lutheran Medical Center, a part of Lutheran HealthCare, LMC Dental’s parent hospital and healthcare facilties, believes that our primary reason for being is to serve our neighbors. Through values reflecting compassion, dignity, integrity, and service, Lutheran affirms its dedication to care for its neighbors and new immigrants. We define health as the total well-being of the community and its residents.

Accomplished and Caring Faculty

LMC Dental currently has 525 full-time and part-time faculty positions. The opportunities continue to grow as our programs and network expands. Our ability to offer at least a 1:1 faculty to student ratio provides a tremendous learning opportunity for LMC Dental residents, and a rewarding experience for faculty. In fact, many of our residents continued their career path by becoming LMC Dental faculty members. Many of our faculty members also own and run private practices, hold faculty positions at prestigious universities and dental schools, and are actively involved in dental associations and government-appointed policy-making boards..
To continue to enlist dedicated and highly renowned specialists, LMC Dental, in 2009, launched several faculty appreciation initiatives. Through grants and other program affiliations, LMC Dental has established faculty incentive programs such as:

• Loan Repayment Program Financial support for faculty in our General and Pediatric Dentistry Programs
• Faculty Development Grant Financial support for faculty in our General and Pediatric Dentistry Programs Distance learning program for faculty to receive a formal curriculum to prepare for careers as dental educators
• Advanced Degree Program for all faculty (MPH, MBA, M.Ed, MPA)—Educator Training Program through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)

If you are interested in applying to LMC Dental as a faculty member or learning more about our faculty grants and programs, please click contact

Director’s Message

In order to deal effectively with this challenging environment, and flourish in it, dentists need a richer base of knowledge and skills than in the past. Dentists need the abilities and competencies to assess the constantly changing landscape of the health care system, and to traverse it successfully.

A Call for the Future

At Lutheran Medical Center we believe there are compelling reasons for today’s dental graduates to consider a residency program. Dentists, like other health care professionals today, find themselves in a much more complex environment than their predecessors. In order to deal effectively with this challenging environment, and flourish in it, dentists need a richer base of knowledge and skills than in the past. Dentists need the competencies to assess the constantly changing landscape of the health care system, and to traverse it successfully.
Despite remarkable improvement in the oral health of many Americans, dentists will remain responsible for the recognition, prevention, management, treatment, and evaluation of caries and periodontal diseases. They will work in closer collaboration with physicians and other health care providers in the management of the pharmaceutical needs of an aging population, birth defects and developmental disorders, oral and pharyngeal cancers, HIV/AIDS, and other chronic and disabling conditions. The Surgeon General’s Report on Oral Health and other recent evidence establishing links between oral health and cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and low birth rate, among other health problems, provide an even more compelling rationale to pursue postdoctoral training.
Oral health, so essential to general health and well being, eludes many in our society. For example, the highest rates of dental caries affect children and families with lower incomes and lesser education. At the same time, many children and young people with developmental or chronic conditions are unable to find access to any dental care, regardless of economic or educational background. Dental needs often overwhelm the health care resources available to many communities. We at Lutheran Medical Center believe deeply in our obligation to serve our communities and we dedicate ourselves to fulfilling this mission as creatively as possible.
Lutheran Medical Center also commits itself to providing an excellent and supportive environment for educating residents in the respected traditions of medicine and dentistry. Modern facilities, a superb faculty, and plentiful educational resources foster a dynamic and satisfying educational experience. We take pride in the quality and inventiveness of our programs and the professional guidance provided during this important phase in your career. We encourage you to explore our programs and look forward to welcoming you to Lutheran.

Neal Demby, DMD, MPH
Director, Department of Dental Medicine