VA AEGD VS GPR Differences

[InformMe123]

I know technically GPRs are hospital-based residencies and AEGDs are usually dental school based but I noticed there are some AEGD programs that are hospital based like the VA AEGD programs. For example, fayetteville VA AEGD program AEGD-1 Program - Fayetteville VA Medical Center which even mentions focus on medically compromised patients.

Therefore, what exactly is the difference between VA GPRs and VA AEGDs? Why do they they have different designations if they are both in hospitals and treating medically compromised patients?

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[SummerJay]

A big difference although in some programs they can be very similar.

Job-wise, if you are interested in working in a hospital or are interested in having privilege in a hospital, you need to have GPR under your belt. If you want to be in private practice or are interested in more of cosmetic dentistry, AEGD would make more sense.

Having said that, it depends on what you are looking for and what you want to get out of the program.

GPR is more team-based (you rely a lot on each other/co-residents to survive), you learn how to function in a hospital and how to admit patient. You also are on rotations like anesthesiology, internal medicine, emergency, etc. Because you are dealing with hospital, your patients tend to be sicker so you learn more about medically complex management and you do more of bread and butter of dentistry with less focus on cosmestics.

AEGD typically has no hospital rotations and you basically learn to do only dentistry. You do not learn how to admit patients in a hospital and etc. The setting will be more comparable to working in real world (private practice for most of you), which means there could be more focus on cosmetic dentistry and also on bread and butter of dentistry instead of being away at times and having less interactions with medical providers.

You will find both programs in both settings (hospital or university based). So GPR doesn't mean it will only be in a hospital setting and vice versa with AEGD.