A dental anesthesiologist is a dentist who specializes in managing pain, anxiety and overall patient health during dental, oral, maxillofacial and adjunctive surgical or diagnostic procedures — the entire perioperative period, in the ADA's official specialty definition.
The specialty, recognized with a definition adopted in March 2019, is dedicated to patient safety and access to care for all dental patients, including the very young and patients with special health care needs.
The path runs through a CODA-accredited residency of at least 36 months.
What a dental anesthesiologist does
The ADA's National Commission on Recognition of Dental Specialties and Certifying Boards — the body that recognizes dental specialties — defines dental anesthesiology as the art and science of managing pain, anxiety and overall patient health during dental, oral, maxillofacial and adjunctive surgical or diagnostic procedures.
The definition spans the entire perioperative period, meaning before, during and after the procedure.
It also names the specialty's purpose: promoting patient safety and access to care for all dental patients, including the very young and patients with special health care needs.
That access language puts patients who are very young or have special health care needs at the center of the specialty's stated purpose, not at its edges.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics describes the day-to-day work in three parts: administering anesthetics to reduce or eliminate pain during a dental procedure, monitoring sedated patients to keep them safe, and helping patients manage pain afterward.
The division of labor matters: the dental anesthesiologist's defined job is the anesthetic and the patient's condition throughout the perioperative period, while the dental treatment itself is the treating clinician's work.
Dental anesthesiology is one of the 12 dental specialties the National Commission currently recognizes.
The ADA's Code of Ethics names all 12 — dental anesthesiology appears alongside endodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthodontics, pediatric dentistry, periodontics, prosthodontics and the rest — and cosmetic dentistry is not among them.
Our guide to the dental specialties covers what each of the 12 does and how they compare.
Where dental anesthesiologists work
Dental anesthesiology supports several different practice models, and no source counts how many of its practitioners work in each — so treat these as the models that exist, not a ranking of which is biggest.
Mobile practice.
In one common model, mobile dental anesthesia, the anesthesiologist travels to the dental office where the patient is being treated, manages the anesthetic and the patient's condition for the procedures performed there, and follows the patient through the perioperative period, while the host dentist performs the dental treatment.
Office- and practice-based roles.
Dental anesthesiologists also work inside a practice's own sedation schedule.
State rules are written around that arrangement: in Washington, a dental anesthesia assistant may accept delegation only from an oral and maxillofacial surgeon or a dental anesthesiologist who holds a valid Washington general anesthesia permit — a rule written for dental anesthesiologists who delegate to their own assistants.
Hospitals.
Hospital care is its own category in the rules.
In New York, a dentist may not use conscious sedation, deep sedation or general anesthesia at any location other than a general hospital without a dental anesthesia certificate issued by the Education Department — the statute treats the hospital setting differently from every office or clinic.
Academia.
Nine CODA-accredited residency programs operated in 2025-26, and programs employ faculty who teach and supervise the specialty's residents.
As for who books them: that turns on each state's sedation rules, and the next section walks through state examples.
Who hires them and how they are paid
The engagement logic runs through state sedation rules, and some states tie them to specialty training.
In Montana, a deep sedation/general anesthesia permit requires a CODA-accredited oral and maxillofacial surgery or dental anesthesiology residency, recent advanced cardiac life support, and an initial office inspection.
In Michigan, the rules bar a general dentist without a dental anesthesiology or oral surgery specialty license from giving general anesthesia or deep, moderate or minimal sedation in the office unless the dentist meets training and competency requirements.
So in Montana, a practice that wants to offer deep sedation or general anesthesia but has no dentist with that residency and permit can bring in someone who already holds them — an oral surgeon or a dental anesthesiologist.
That is one gap dental anesthesiologists fill in the market.
On pay: BLS publishes no separate dental anesthesiologist wage series — separate wage series exist only for general dentists, oral and maxillofacial surgeons, orthodontists and prosthodontists; every other dental specialty falls into "Dentists, all other specialists" (code 29-1029), which O*NET defines as all dentists not listed separately.
That proxy group's median annual wage was $224,990 in May 2025, per BLS.
For context from the same table: oral and maxillofacial surgeons at $352,220 and general dentists at $170,950.
Treat the $224,990 as a group figure: it also covers endodontists, periodontists, pediatric dentists, oral pathologists, oral radiologists and the other recognized specialties without their own series — not a dental anesthesiologist salary.
It also matters that the BLS's OEWS wage estimates leave out the self-employed and owners and partners in unincorporated firms, so self-employed practitioners in any specialty sit outside these figures.
On structure: ADA guidance for employed dentists notes that a flat salary or an hourly rate are options, but that pay based on a percentage of production and/or collections is more common — that guidance is about dental employment generally, not this specialty.
For dental anesthesiologists themselves, our sources document no typical pay structure beyond that general guidance — terms are set contract by contract.
No published source we found gives typical per-case or hourly fees charged by mobile dental anesthesiologists to host practices, so there is no benchmark figure to quote; any number you encounter belongs to one specific arrangement.
How to become a dental anesthesiologist
The path starts with a dental degree (DDS or DMD), then the residency.
CODA requires a dental anesthesiology residency to run at least 36 months of full-time formal training — and in 2025-26 the average accredited program length was 36 months, so the minimum is also the norm.
Inside those 36 months, CODA sets concrete minimums: at least 12 months spent full-time on a hospital anesthesia service that provides trauma and/or emergency surgical care; at least 800 total cases of deep sedation/general anesthesia per resident by the end of training; at least 100 outpatient anesthesia cases for dentistry supervised by dentist anesthesiologists; and at least four months of medicine rotations, chosen from areas that include cardiology, emergency medicine, intensive care, pain medicine, pediatrics and pulmonary medicine.
The programs are few.
Per the CODA/ADA HPI 2025-26 Survey of Advanced Dental Education, there were 9 dental anesthesiology programs, 32 first-year residents, 87 residents enrolled in total, and 29 graduates in 2025.
All 9 programs paid their residents a stipend and none charged tuition or fees; the average first-year stipend was $73,085.
The accredited programs are listed in the dental anesthesiology program directory.
In the states below, the residency is not the last step: deep sedation and general anesthesia take a state permit or certificate, and the systems differ by state.
In Texas, a dentist needs a TSBDE anesthesia permit for nitrous oxide/oxygen inhalation sedation and for each sedation level: Level 1 minimal, Level 2 moderate enteral, Level 3 moderate parenteral, and Level 4 deep sedation or general anesthesia.
Illinois issues Permit A for moderate (conscious) sedation and Permit B for deep sedation or general anesthesia.
Massachusetts issues Permit A for general anesthesia/deep sedation, B-1 for moderate sedation, B-2 for minimal sedation and C for nitrous oxide-oxygen.
Washington requires a DQAC permit to administer moderate sedation with enteral agents, moderate sedation with parenteral agents, or deep sedation/general anesthesia — and a general anesthesia permit covers both moderate levels.
In New York, any conscious sedation, deep sedation or general anesthesia outside a general hospital requires the dental anesthesia certificate from the Education Department.
Michigan takes a specialty-license route: the state may issue a dental specialty license in dental anesthesiology, among other branches, and its office sedation rule, covered above, turns on that license or on meeting training and competency requirements.
How your own state treats specialist licensure may differ from Michigan's approach — confirm with your state dental board.
Board certification sits on top, and it is voluntary.
The recognized board is the American Dental Board of Anesthesiology (ADBA), recognized by the National Commission in 2020.
Its process even assumes the state permit comes first: to apply for the ADBA oral exam, a candidate must already hold a current, valid general anesthesia permit.
Permit rules are state law — they differ and they change
Dental anesthesiologist vs. oral surgeon sedation
Oral and maxillofacial surgery is a surgical specialty with anesthesia training built in.
CODA requires OMS residents to spend at least 32 weeks on anesthesia and medical services, including at least 20 weeks on the anesthesia service functioning as an anesthesia resident.
It also requires graduating OMS residents to be trained to competence in delivering general anesthesia and deep sedation to patients of at least 8 years of age.
Dental anesthesiology inverts the ratio: the residency is at least 36 months of full-time training in the specialty, including the 12-month hospital anesthesia block.
So the difference is depth versus breadth: an oral surgeon is a surgeon who is trained to deliver the anesthetic; a dental anesthesiologist is an anesthesia specialist whose defined role is managing pain, anxiety and the patient's overall health while someone else operates.
The credential world overlaps too.
The American Dental Society of Anesthesiology runs its own credential, the National Dental Board of Anesthesiology.
Sitting the NDBA exam requires active ADSA membership and either a dental anesthesiology residency acceptable to ADSA or an accredited oral and maxillofacial surgery residency, so surgeons can hold it.
That is a society credential — the National Commission-recognized certifying board for the specialty is the ADBA, as covered above.
Do not treat the two as the same certification.
In practice, who sedates a given patient depends on the case, the permits each provider holds in that state, and how the practice is staffed.
For the surgical side of the comparison — training length, scope, match — see our oral surgeon career guide.
Finding dental anesthesiologist jobs
It is a small field, and a young one.
ADA's Health Policy Institute counted 159 professionally active dentists holding a certificate or degree in dental anesthesiology in 2025, up from 123 in 2022 — and HPI only began tracking the specialty after the National Commission recognized it.
Note how HPI counts: a dentist appears under every practice area in which they hold a certificate or degree, so the 159 is a count of credential-holders, not of full-time specialists.
A second, different measure: the American Dental Board of Anesthesiology reported 359 active diplomates as of Dec.
31, 2025.
Diplomates are the board's own board-certified specialists.
The two numbers describe different groups — credential-holders versus certified diplomates — so cite each with its source rather than blending them.
Because the field is small, it pays to read past the exact title.
Roles surface in dentist and specialist listings on dental job boards, in hospital postings, and through residency and society networks.
For scale: the 2025-26 survey counted 9 programs and 29 graduates in 2025.
When you are ready to look, browse dentist jobs and watch for anesthesia-focused postings within dentist and specialist listings.
If you are on the other side of the table — a practice deciding how to cover sedation — our guide to sedation permit staffing sets out the sedation permit levels and the staffing that goes with them — how many trained staff must be present, and the permits assistants and hygienists hold.