Dental anesthesia is a specialty that trains dentists to safely provide patient sedation. Local anesthetics are used for most procedures, but young children and disabled patients often require full sedation. Dental anesthesia requires extensive training and precise medication dosage calculations. Dental anesthesiologists typically work with other dentists and it is a profitable specialty.
Dental anesthesia is a dental specialty that trains dentists in how to safely provide patient sedation. For many patients, most dental procedures, including cleaning, sealants, cavity removal, and fillings, can be done comfortably during a regular office visit. Dentists often use a local numbing agent to minimize patient pain, but patients can usually be awake and alert. The same is not always true for young children or people with disabilities, many of whom require full sedation to be treated. Sedation is also usually needed for more invasive dental procedures such as oral surgery.
The goal of dental anesthesia is to manage and reduce the patient’s pain through careful administration of medications. A general anesthetic usually renders a patient completely unconscious for a period of several hours, while local anesthetics are used to completely numb a part of the body, usually the face and mouth in dental treatments. In lower doses, general anesthetics may also be given to relax a patient. More often than not, nitrous oxide, more commonly known as “laughing gas,” is used for this purpose.
In most countries, dental anesthesia requires an extensive training program in addition to the training already required to become a dentist. Applicants for dental anesthesia usually must already be certified as dentists to qualify for anesthesia programs. Most of the time, certification takes the form of a dental rotation: dentists spend a certain amount of time studying under the guidance of practicing anesthesiologists and are required to participate in a dedicated cycle of anesthesiology classes. They also usually must pass an exam and meet regular recertification and continuing education requirements. Sometimes dentists will jump right into the anesthesiology specialty, while others will spend time in general practice before returning to school to earn a dental anesthesiology credential.
Dental anesthesia is a tightly regulated specialty in large part because of how precise and specific its doctors have to be. Calculating the correct dosage of dental anesthesia medications depends on the patient’s age, body mass, and blood density, among other factors. Too much anesthetic could lead to neurological damage or permanent coma, while too little could cause the patient to wake up or feel pain mid-procedure. Anesthesia usually requires constant vigilance and medication monitoring from the beginning to the end of the procedure.
More often than not, a dentist who becomes a dental anesthetist devotes his entire practice to anesthesiology. Dental anesthesiologists typically work with and for other general practitioner dentists, performing anesthesia treatments as needed. In most places, dental anesthesia is one of the most profitable dental specialties, closely followed by dental radiology.
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