Information to Residents in Orthodontics (During Orientation Session)
Welcome to Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, a division of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the American University of Beirut Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center.
The division was established in late 2001, but dentistry can trace its ‘roots’ at AUB to 1910, when the University founded the first dental school in Lebanon and the Near East, and its first dean Dr. Arthur Ryton Dray held his first class of three students. Today the Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics services are carried out at brand new facilities using the latest equipment of this highly-specialized field. Our orthodontic clinic, The Karekin G. Tabourian Dentofacial Clinic, carries the name of a former student and professor at the AUB dental school, which closed in 1940.
The obligations and responsibilities of residents are outlined in the Resident’s Agreement you sign in the Dean’s office. Other specific delineations are embedded in the Clinic Manual. On examinations and promotion to the next year of residency, our policy is clear: a minimum grade of 80% must be achieved on didactic and clinical performances. These are evaluated at the biannual Faculty Meeting (usually in February and September). At these times, the progress and final examination, respectively, and clinical performances will be evaluated by the faculty members. Decisions that can be made include the following:
Grade: requirement for passing is 80%.
Failure to achieve the minimal grade may lead the faculty members to take the following action:
- Probationary status, which may be limited to the didactic, clinical, or both areas. The faculty members will decide collectively or ask the program director to set a remedial plan for the individual resident, with preferably periodic evaluation.
- Dismissal. Reasons for dismissal on non-academic and disciplinary grounds are parallel to institutional conditions. Academic reasons are based on failing to meet the objectives set for the probation period, and sustained failure on examinations or in clinical performance.
You will find:
- a description of the program and its curricular timetable. You will enrol in the Master’s program, which requires you to conduct research and defend a thesis. This research will be accepted as fulfilment of the research requirement for the orthodontic residency certificate. As you were informed upon applying to the program, no tuition is required for the orthodontic program, but it is for the Masters degree. Also, orthodontic residents do not receive a resident stipend.
- a schedule of activities for the Fall. Other schedules are distributed at the proper time.
- a copy of the dress code and communications code. The aim is to promote professional presence and behaviour (the same is published in Chapter 2 of the Clinic Manual).
- a copy of the clinic manual, which guides you into clinical procedures and policies, codes of conduct, infection/exposure control, and various emergency and patient rights policies. In the clinic, partnerships are set between the residents (PG1, PG2, PG3) according to alphabetical order.
- vacation is not taken by all residents at the same time, as the clinics do not close. In addition to the holidays allowed by the Medical Center, at least two of the four weeks of vacation are taken in the summer, one at Christmas day, and if another one is left, at a time determined in consultation with the program and clinic directors.
Please feel free to interact and communicate openly among residents and with faculty and staff and work in partnership and collegiality.