Teaching the Next Generation of Dentists
There’s an old adage that those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach. But at University General Dentists, they are one of the rare companies that can do both.
University General Dentists opened its doors in 1998. A full-service dental office, the practice tackles just about any dental need you might think of: general and cosmetic dentistry, dental implants, family dentistry, full mouth reconstruction, gum disease, hospital sedation, veneers, root canals, whitening, smile makeovers—the list goes on and on. This team is a go-to practice for East Tennessee families seeking the best of the best in dental care for their loved ones.
“University General Dentists was born as a unified practice entity to care for patients and provide the clinical training for General Practice Residents in the Department of General Dentistry at The University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville,” says Dr. Lee Wilson, the practice’s founding partner. “This model was unique to GPR’s and has survived the test of time for 20 years now. We fortunately have a great relationship with the dental community of Knoxville as the future generations of dentists are educated.”
The practice grew rapidly over the course of the next few decades. In 2003, a second partner, Timothy Williams, came on, and in 2011 a third joined the ranks, Andrew Young. With two locations today, families across the region love the environment that they are welcomed into.
However, the interesting thing about the practice is not, in fact, its rapid growth, but rather the fact that it has a two-fold mission: to care for family dental needs and train the next generation.
“Our mission is to obviously take care of our patients using cutting edge technology and proven methods of treating dental disease and oral health,” says Dr. Tim Williams, one of the practice partners. “The second is that we are all faculty in a residency program. We train future dentists in advanced techniques.”
The fact that the practice trains residents, in a way, brings this practice’s story full circle, as all three of its providers completed their dental residency at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. And today, because the practice is directly affiliated with UT Medical Center, they are able to provide the expertise of an accomplished faculty and modern clinical therapies in a state-of-the-art environment.
The practice runs both one- and two-year programs for its residents. While a dental school trains future providers in general dental knowledge, University General Dentists practitioners train their residents in things they aren’t necessarily going to learn in school.
“At UGD we work side by side with our residents, treating patients using the most advanced digital dentistry technique and equipment,” says Dr. Young. “Residents graduating from our program become the go-to dentist in their community.”
Many of the dental residents end up staying in Knoxville once their schooling is complete, which is why the work of University General Dentists is so critical for this region; they are training the next generation of the industry, in many cases the industry in East Tennessee. “We have a desire to care for patients,” Williams says. “But we also want to make sure that the patients of the future—our children and grandchildren—are well-cared for.”