Mission Statement

The Department of Rehabilitative & Reconstructive Dentistry supports the University of Louisville School of Dentistry in its missions to provide quality patient-centered care, contemporary dental education to ULSD students, and foster innovative oral health research for the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the nation.

Goal

The Department shares the responsibility for creating an environment that will produce exceptional dental professionals with skilled social and technical abilities who are committed to life-long learning, scholarship, and ethical practice. The Department supports this goal by providing a balanced program of teaching, scholarship, and service activities.

Objectives

• Provide students with the professional knowledge and skills required for competency in all discipline-specific clinical procedures.
• Prepare all undergraduate and graduate students for the competent clinical practice of the specialties of the Department by providing the appropriate didactic instruction, service experience and research component for each of the Divisions encompassed by the Department
• Encourage the use of advanced teaching methods that will promote and foster critical thinking.
• Support interdisciplinary collaborations between the basic and clinical sciences to advance the treatment of patients using evidence-based approaches.
• Nurture all faculty, staff, and students’ abilities to produce quality clinical and translational research, while encouraging them to disseminate their work and activities through scholarly publications in professional journals and books and by the presentation of new research at academic meetings
• Encourage faculty and students to seek extramural funding for scholarly and research endeavors.
• Motivate the faculty’s participation in health-oriented groups that will improve oral health and quality of life within the community.
• Increase the number of dental providers capable of managing the needs of persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) by providing this specific education and clinical training to all dental professionals; which includes dental students, graduate students/residents and dental hygiene students