Former student calls dental program a joke

Dr. Charles Aldridge quit the program because he said it lacks the professional organization and academic guidance he expected from a postdoctoral program. He also claims the dental residency program has been an unprofessional, dishonest operation from the start.

From late June to mid-August, the program's three residents were in licensing limbo and spent more time playing computer games than practicing dentistry, Aldridge said.

"For the first 50 days, a lot of games of solitaire were played," he said. "There was a lot of standing around and losing out on education and experience."

Three months after Nevada's dental residency opened in late June, Aldridge abandoned the program. He said he was seeing three or four patients a day and getting neither the education nor experience he was promised.

"I would say at this point that these are unsubstantiated allegations," said Karl Armstrong, a staff attorney for the University and Community College System of Nevada.

The dental residency program, which may expand to six residents next fall, has an annual budget of $566,000.

It attracted more than 200 applicants for its first three slots.

The Board of Regents, at its Dec. 1-2 meeting in Reno, is expected to hear an update on the program.

On Wednesday, Regent Mark Alden said: "We need to cut off the dragon's head now, unless they can come up with a solution at the December meeting. I say this is going to be solved, or let's return the unspent money to the estate tax fund."

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