CDC's Dental Public Health Residency: Who Can Apply and What It Offers

At a glance

• Since 1996 CDC has run a dental public health residency, accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA).
• It is for people with a dental degree (DDS or DMD) and a Master of Public Health (MPH) or comparable degree.
• It is based in Atlanta, starts every July, and runs 12 months full-time or 24 months part-time.
• One or two dentists are admitted each year.

Applications for 2025–2026 are closed; CDC posts the next cycle on the program page and explains how to apply.

What it aims to do

The program trains specialists in dental public health who can work with public health and dental colleagues in many settings to improve oral health for whole populations. Residents:

1. gain experience across all ten competency areas set by the American Board of Dental Public Health (ABDPH);
2. learn research methods, with an emphasis on oral health epidemiology and population-based work;
3. prepare for the board's examination and certification;
4. start a career as a dental public health specialist.

Graduates receive a certificate of completion that meets the ABDPH's educational requirements for specialty certification.

Who can apply

Before starting, residents must have:

• a DDS or DMD from a U.S. dental school accredited by CODA, or a Canadian school accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation of Canada. Graduates of other foreign dental schools must show equivalent education;
• an MPH or comparable degree from a U.S. institution accredited by an agency the U.S. Department of Education recognizes, with courses in biostatistics, epidemiology, health policy and management, environmental health and behavioral sciences.

Cost and pay

• No tuition or fees.
• Stipends come through CDC's regular fellowship program and range from $30,000 to $66,000, depending on experience and whether training is full- or part-time.
• Fellows are not federal employees, but they have access to CDC's training resources. Employees of other federal agencies, including U.S. Public Health Service commissioned officers, can discuss their situation with the residency director.

The training plan

Each resident builds an individual training plan around the ABDPH's competency objectives: which skills to develop, the activities to build them, and how progress will be measured. Every plan includes an applied research project and a supervised field experience.

Setting. The program is run by CDC's Division of Oral Health in the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, whose programs cover cancer, diabetes, heart disease, tobacco use and more. Residents can work with CDC's dentists, statisticians, economists, epidemiologists, social and behavioral scientists, physicians, and health policy, communication and evaluation specialists, and use its libraries, computing, courses, seminars and guest lectures — and its partner institutions. CDC also runs a dental public health residency lecture series.

Sources

Based on "About CDC's Dental Public Health Residency Program," Division of Oral Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain.