Maryland - Choptank Community Health Systems - AEGD

Please be aware that this location will not be participating in Match for this cycle.

Here at Choptank, our faculty and staff dentist come from diverse clinical and academic backgrounds. Intensive clinical and didactic training in comprehensive care of the dental patient, complex medical issues, critical thinking, and treatment planning are the top priorities of our program.  In addition, the CCHS AEGD program provides hands on advanced training in the dental specialties, including oral surgery, pediatric dentistry, orofacial pain / TMJ disorders, endodontics, prosthodontics, and geriatric dentistry.  We have recently expanded our dental program to include a Board-certified Pediatric dentist (Dr. Usman Ali), Orofacial Pain, TMJ Disorder specialist (Dr. Yenisey Valdes), and Geriatric Dentistry Specialist ( Dr. Al-Allaq) who is the NYU-AEGD site director and preceptorship program director.

Located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Choptank Health System, Inc. (CCHS) is a private, non-profit community health center providing primary health care services in Caroline, Dorchester, and Talbot Counties and the surrounding areas. CCHS dental sites are equipped with the state-of-the art dental equipment including but limited to digital x-rays, intra-oral cameras, Cone-Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT), and Nitrous oxide sedation. We also conduct a hospital based OR program in collaboration with a local hospital in Dorchester County to provide comprehensive dental treatment to children under general anesthesia.

Choptank Community Health’s dental program offers an accredited one-year Advanced Education in General Dentistry Program (AEGD) with the option of a second year focused on Public Health.  The department is committed to providing advanced education in general dentistry to individuals who plan to seek careers in general dentistry.  Choptank has its own continuing education department which offers hands on courses to the dental community, international dentist and NYU-AEGD residency program.  Continuing education courses include an Invisalign certification course, Oral Surgery and Implants, Endodontic hands on courses, Orofacial pain management and sleep apnea courses.

Residents participate in wide range of case presentations, literature reviews and guidelines in dentistry lecture series.  New AEGD residents are involved in two weeks of lecture and hands on orientation, prior to seeing patients at the start of residency program.  AEGD residents will always have direct supervision by clinical faculty, and chairside guidance one on one with their attending faculty.  AEGD residents are well respected and treated in a very professional way. Dr. Al-Allaq, who is the AEGD site director ensures that the residents are gaining the most of their clinical and educational training throughout the program in a positive stress-free environment.

We can offer a comprehensive AEGD Program to expand the treatment repertoire practiced by our graduates.  Our AEGD dental residents traditionally rotate between three sites Cambridge, Federalsburg, and Goldsboro. Didactic instruction is an important component of our program. 

We at Choptank have established a preceptorship program for international trained dentists in which attracts applicants worldwide. Our recent graduates have come from Dubai, India, Iraq, and Canada.  There are ongoing group discussions on various clinical cases between the AEGD residents and the International dentist in the preceptorship program in which it enhances and expands their clinical judgment, treatment planning and critical thinking.

Our goal as educators and clinicians at Choptank is to thrive for outstanding care to our patients and provide an excellent post graduate dental educational experience to our NYU AEGD residents.