Well, making pearly whites for a living as an IMG (International Medical Graduate) is not a walk in the park but can become brisk once you know your way around familiar territory. Residents Medical in the US for IMGs and those with international visas offers three programs to allow foreign dentists to practice: ASPID, GPR/AEGD, and Specialty programs.
Advanced Standing Program for International Dentists (ASPID)
ASPID known as the Advanced Standing Program for International Dentists is training International Dental students with visas who want to work as dentists in the US. With this program, you receive a DDS (Doctor of Dental Surgery). It’s a two-year program of training and clinical rotations. To apply for this program, you must use the ADEA & CAAPID (American Dental Education Association)/ (Centralized Application for Advanced Placement for International Dentists) web tool to complete the online form. This program gives you a DDS which can allow you to practice dentistry within all 50 states.
GPR/AEGD both stand for respectively General Practice Residency Programs and Advanced Education in General Dentistry Program. Prior to graduate dentistry training education most of these programs were just considered internships at hospitals. In time the terminology since then changed and became more post-doctoral programs like AEGD that are a dental school, hospital, and freestanding based. GPR allows future dental students to have clinical training where they can rotate as residents amongst specialties like general medicine, general surgery, and anesthesiology. AEGD offers advanced training in clinical dentistry that allows dentists to enhance their practitioner skills and last about a year. This training also covers disciplines diagnosis, treatment, patient management, and administration.
Specialty programs offer additional training in a particular specialty of dentistry similar to medical fellowships. If you are an international dentist, you can freely apply to these programs but you are up against US dental graduates who are applying in order to get licensure within the state and will allow you to work within that state and a few others.
Integrated National Board Dental Examination (INBDE)
INBDE is the Integrated National Board Dental Examination which has been devised and advocated by the Joint Commission on National Examinations (JCNDE). This exam like the USMLE that residents must take before entering residency, is a necessity to apply for any of the above-mentioned programs. Sometimes there might be exceptions in submitting INBDE but it is a mandatory requirement if you are an international dental student. It is set to replace NBDE (National Board Dental Examination) Part I and Part II. Part I is discontinued, and Part II will be discontinued by August 2022. The exam integrates biomedical, behavioral sciences, and clinical sciences to show entry-level competency. The reason behind curating this new exam was to make improvements that are more relevant to dentistry and make it a better test-taking experience. More information on the exam can be found on the Joint Commission website: https://jcnde.ada.org/en/inbde
Dental programs are out there for graduates who seek to have licensure as a dentist, the bottom line is what program best fits you. That’s where Residents Medical can step in and see where your potential lies and how well your CV tells us what program or training you need in order to be a dentist in the USA. To speak with a Residents Medical specialist, connect with us or call at 310-444-9700.
