ASDA About Us

About the ASDA

The American Society of Dentist Anesthesiologists (ASDA) comprises a group of dentists who have completed a minimum of two years of full-time postdoctoral training in anesthesiology. Our clinical training includes a significant portion devoted to hospital operating room anesthesiology rotations as well as ambulatory anesthesia for medical and dental patients. These and other clinical experiences, such as emergency medicine, cardiology, and acute and chronic pain management, are complemented by didactic lectures and seminars to develop highly competent practitioners who can carefully evaluate a dental patient, devise and conduct an appropriate anesthetic plan, and safely manage complications that may arise.

Most dentist anesthesiologists limit their practice to providing anesthesia services for other dentists who perform the necessary dental care. Some dentist anesthesiologists currently direct a pain and anxiety control team and perform the dental procedure while team members monitor the patient.The dentist anesthesiologist who works in a single office or in the offices of other dentists provides all the necessary equipment, medications, and sophisticated monitors to ensure an unsurpassed margin of safely in the care of the ambulatory dental patient.

The dentist anesthesiologist may provide only monitoring (e.g., continual blood pressure readings and continuous pretracheal auscultation, pulse oximetry, and electrocardiography) for medically compromised dental patients, such as those with hypertension, angina pectoris, multiple allergies, and other conditions that confront the operating dentist on a routine basis. Nervous or uncooperative patients may benefit from intravenous moderate sedation, or may require deep sedation or general anesthesia in order for the dentist to complete the necessary dental care.

The dentist anesthesiologist provides a safe, relaxed atmosphere for the patient and the operating dentist and decreases the likelihood that the dentist will have to tell the patient (or parent), "I'm sorry, but we are just not equipped to handle a patient with your (child's) special needs."

Dentist anesthesiologists are also involved in: (1) teaching pain and anxiety control in dental schools to dental students and residents in various specialty programs; (2) providing continuing education courses in moderate sedation, pharmacology, and medical emergencies; and (3) conducting research related to anesthesiology in dentistry.

Finally, in selected dental schools, hospitals, and other health care facilities, dentist anesthesiologists serve as members of the pain management service, lending their expertise in regional nerve blockade and pharmacological pain and anxiety control to the diagnosis and treatment of orofacial pain.

The ASDA strongly believes that anesthesiology should not be regarded by any specialty or interest group as "their turf" but rather that it is a gift provided to the entire profession by our predecessors. We have the responsibility to use it wisely and to pass it on to future generations of dentists. We believe that the specialty of dental anesthesiology will forever secure anesthesia as an integral part of the entire profession of dentistry.

The ADA's Policy Statement on Conscious Sedation, Deep Sedation and General Anesthesia recognizing the right of qualified dentists, as defined by the ADA, to provide conscious sedation.
The report of the National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference on Anesthesia and Sedation in the Dental office.
The right of all ADA-approved specialty and other training programs to establish, devise, and direct their own curricula in pain and anxiety control in accordance with ADA policy.
The right of all ADA-approved specialties, the Academy of General Dentistry, and other dental organizations to set practice guidelines and standards in anesthesia pertaining to their own areas of interest.

The use of conscious sedation, deep sedation, and general anesthesia in dentistry. Chicago, American Dental Association, 1985
Consensus Development Conference Statement. In Dionne, R.A., and Laskin, D.M. eds. Anesthesia and Sedation in the Dental Office, Elsevier Science Publishing Co., 1986
Guidelines for teaching the comprehensive control of pain and anxiety in dentistry. Chicago, American Dental Association. 1992

In consideration of the discovery of anesthesia by dentists, the continuing contribution to the art and science of anesthesia by dentists, and the continuing requirements for and provision of anesthesia care by dentists, this Society has established as its purpose to support and encourage the clinical practice of anesthesia by dentists, and to promote the acquisition and dissemination of scientific knowledge associated therewith.

To make available to dental patients the full spectrum of anesthesia care.
To train dentists in the full spectrum of anesthesia care.
The development and support of a recognized specialty of anesthesiology in the dental profession.
The establishment of an anesthesiology department in dental schools.