Welcome to the Department of Applied Dentistry's website for the Advanced Clinical Training and Service (ACTS) Program. We're part of the School of Dental Medicine at the University of Colorado Denver. ACTS is an ambitious service-learning program that allows all of our fourth-year dental students to gain valuable clinical training while providing oral health care to underserved communities.
The school's Department of Applied Dentistry is the academic home to a curriculum that helps students put their clinical training to work. We teach public health, behavioral sciences, practice management, geriatrics, special patient care, ethics and decision making. Our efforts culminate in our students' capstone project, the ACTS Program.
The ACTS Program has gone through many metamorphoses since its inception in 1985. Originally, ACTS began midway through the fourth year and concluded the following September. In the early 1990s, the school moved the time-frame up. ACTS began in January of the fourth year and concluded shortly after Commencement Day in June.
In 2006, the school committed itself to integrating ACTS within the fourth year curriculum by interleaving full-time ACTS affiliations with patient care assignments at the school's campus-based clinics. For the Class of 2009, ACTS has been made a part-time assignment, in order to facilitate patient care at the campus-based clinics. Beginning in June 2008, the new DS4 students will be assigned to an ACTS clinic for 2 or 3 days/week for eight weeks. ACTS will continue to be a 100-day committment for each student and these part-time assignments will continue through the fall and early spring. In February, students will complete their campus-based educational experiences and then their ACTS assignements will be full-time for the subsequent weeks of the fourth year.
ACTS remains an integral part of the school's curriculum and it's reserved for full-time, predoctoral students at our school. Our students complete ACTS and receive their DDS degrees, knowing that they truly can make it in the world - knowing they can make a difference.
Are you a Colorado dentist, treating patients in an underserved community? You might find it rewarding to work with us in ACTS.
Please feel free to look around our website. If you'd like more information, you can contact Dr. Rob Berg.
