Dental alum named director of University Dental Associates

Nearly 35 years after graduating from the UNMC College of Dentistry, David G. Berkheim, D.D.S., returned to his alma mater in January as the new executive director of University Dental Associates (UDA), the college’s private faculty dental practice.

A 1983 graduate, Dr. Berkheim spent his career in private practice. He started briefly as an associate in York, then worked in Sutton and Lincoln from 1985 to 2017. When the opportunity at UNMC came about, he said, he saw it as an open door into a new, but similar, career and felt his experience in private practice would translate well into this new position.

Dr. Berkheim sold his private practice in 2017 after accepting his new role at UNMC. He is charged with implementing the directives of the UDA Board of Directors and overseeing the operation of the UDA clinic. He also will be able to practice dentistry at the UDA clinic.

“The position is similar to operating your own office, but on a larger scale,” Dr. Berkheim said.

UDA has 21 practicing general and specialty dentists, 19 in Lincoln and two in Omaha.

Interestingly, UDA (in its current form) didn’t even exist when Dr. Berkheim graduated from dental school. The practice was formally organized into UDA in 1995 to provide another level of care to patients seeking dental services through the College of Dentistry. UDA came under the direction of James Jenkins, D.D.S., assistant professor in the UNMC Department of Adult Restorative Dentistry, in 2011 and has grown to become the largest practice of board-certified dental specialists in Nebraska.

“This is a dream practice for a general dentist,” Dr. Berkheim said. “It’s great to have specialists on site that can be consulted while I have a patient in the office.”

The treatment process is expedited and patients don’t have to be referred to another office off site, thus providing continuity of patient care. UDA providers offer a full range of services: general dentistry, pediatric dentistry, periodontics, endodontics, oral surgery, orthodontics, oral pathology, prosthodontics and radiology.

All of UDA’s dentists also are UNMC faculty members and spend a portion of their time teaching dental and dental hygiene students. That’s part of what interested Dr. Berkheim about the position. In addition to his UDA duties, he teaches one half day a week on the clinic floor.

“It brings back a lot of memories,” he said. “It’s been a blast to interact with the students. I hope to be able to give the students a little bit of insight about what to expect in private practice.”