A Career with IHS Dental Offers the Opportunity to Reach the Next Level
The Advanced General Practice Residency Program

Are you looking for an opportunity to learn and practice new clinical skills in a multidisciplinary environment? Does working with experienced specialists in real-world, practice settings appeal to you? Are you interested in a professional path with opportunities to reach the next level? Then you'll want to consider a career with The Indian Health Service (IHS) Division of Oral Health.

After two years of service with the IHS, you'll be eligible to apply for the Advanced General Practice Residency (AGPR) program. The AGPR is a two year, hospital-based residency that offers advanced training in all aspects of general dentistry and administrative management. And, if you are a participant in the IHS Loan Repayment program, your participation continues during the residency.

Read on to share the AGPR experiences of these current and former residents:

Heshmet Mortazavi, DMD
Chief Dental Officer, Tohatchi Dental Clinic
Tohatchi, NM

Angie Roach, DDS
W.W. Hastings Indian Medical Center
Tahlequah, OK

Kimberly Woods, DMD
Gallup Indian Medical Center
Gallup, NM

Q: Why did you apply for the AGPR?

Heshmet: In 1998, when I decided to accept long-term employment with the Commissioned Corps of the US Public Health Service, I believed that having that extra training in an Advanced General Practice Residency would be beneficial for my career long term. I had some supervisory experience at the time but I wanted to go up to the next level, which is, supervising clinics with more than 3 or 4 dentists and hygienists and the AGPR program trains you in administrative issues. And, I thought it would be a good way of updating my dental knowledge and skills, because I had been out of school at the time for 15 years.

Q: How did you benefit from the program?

Angie: Well, the greatest benefit would be learning IHS standards and protocols. The IHS likes you to practice dentistry within their standards. A lot of early childhood caries exist and they teach you how to address that differently than you might in private practice. It's learning their standards and how they like dentistry to be addressed. I'll reap the benefits of this program for my entire career in dentistry and not only just for IHS standards but for my own clinical expertise.

Kimberly: It teaches you, first of all, how to run a program, how to be a manager and how to survive in a little, tiny satellite clinic if you're the only one out there on your own. The AGPR has certainly made me want to stay with the IHS for the rest of my career. This is a wonderful opportunity I would have never gotten anywhere else. It's opened many doors.

Heshmet: There's not one thing that stands out but it's many things that you gain through the experience. Experiences with a particular patient, with other compromised patients, little hints or special information that comes from a specialist down to you while you're doing a case. I think over the two years you get a lot of information and if you're smart enough you can kind of collect them, it gives you quite a bit of knowledge.

Q: How do you feel the APGR helped your clinical skills?

Kimberly: I've had much more exposure to many interesting and different things than many of my colleagues or peers anywhere else in the country. In the clinic, I have seen all kinds of stuff that you see in pathology books - things that might happen once in awhile are commonplace here. And, the trauma - at Gallup the trauma experience that I've had with people who've been hurt in accidents has far exceeded my expectations.

The experience I've had with other medical doctors in this hospital has been amazing and now I really feel like I can call and make a consult sound like I know what I'm talking about. Medically speaking, I have really been able to fill in the gaps with this residency, much more than I ever would have, had I not come here.

Angie: When I first came here the first thing I told my parents and my friends was how unbelievable the learning environment was. We are taught skills that you do not necessarily learn in dental school, it is one level up. We are learning different specialties and performing OR dentistry. I had been here probably two weeks when I did a surgical endo procedure with Dr. Stenberg. The patient had an endo filling extend beyond the apex. We had to perform an apical surgery in which we were able to save the tooth. I had never done this type of surgery before and it was amazing. I have since performed various other surgeries in addition to this.

Q: Is there a particular experience that you enjoyed most?

Angie: My favorite thing has been anesthesia rotation. We literally go to the OR everyday for a month and do the rotation with the anesthesiologist where we intubate the patient. We talk about the drugs that we use to sedate the patient and wake them back up. I enjoyed that rotation so much.

Of course, we're on call for the hospital here so we take emergency calls when the emergency room doctors call us. I've seen some trauma cases come through the ER. One night I had a 5-year-old girl that decided she wanted to do her gymnastics off of her grandmother's couch and hit the coffee table. She had some facial lacerations and we had to do facial sutures. Those are things that you typically won't do in a private practice. Here we get to deal with trauma cases regularly.

Q: What advice would you have for someone considering the AGPR?

Heshmet: If you're going to be a career IHS dentist or commissioned officer, I definitely suggest taking this program. It's a tremendous help and gives you quite a bit of insight with the administration and clinical aspects of dentistry -- there's no downside to it even if it's in the early part of your career. If somebody is thinking of making this their career and plans to stay with Indian Health Service for a long time, they should go through one of the AGPR programs.

Angie: Doing the residency program kind of makes you want to stay in the IHS and give back to what they've given you during the 2-year residency program. The knowledge that you learn here is amazing. The experience has been wonderful. It is priceless.

Kimberly: Do it! Immediately, if not sooner - why didn't you already do it! What are you waiting for?

If you want to know more about the AGPR experience, please contact:

Heshmet Mortazavi, DMD
Heshmat.Mortazavi@gimc.ihs.gov

Angie Roach, DDS
Angie.Roach@mail.ihs.gov

Kimberly Woods, DMD
Kimberly.Woods@gimc.ihs.gov

A career with IHS can help you reach the next level.

Wherever you are now in your professional life, the IHS offers exciting possibilities. To explore them for yourself and to request information, visit the IHS Division of Oral Health Web site at www.dentist.ihs.gov or contact: