Becoming a dental anesthesiologist runs in a fixed order: a DDS or DMD and a state dental license, a CODA-accredited dental anesthesiology residency of at least 36 months, state authorization for deep sedation and general anesthesia — a permit, certificate or specialty license, depending on the state — and, voluntarily, board certification from the American Dental Board of Anesthesiology.
After college, the training is dental school plus at least three years of residency.
Here is each step, what it requires, and where the timeline can stretch.
Short answer: how many years it takes
The path runs in a fixed order.
After an undergraduate degree and dental school, the specialty steps are:
- A DDS or DMD and a state dental license.
- A CODA-accredited dental anesthesiology residency — at least 36 months of full-time training.
- State authorization to deliver deep sedation and general anesthesia — a permit, certificate or specialty license, depending on the state.
- Voluntary board certification through the American Dental Board of Anesthesiology (ADBA).
Counted after college, the training is dental school plus at least three years of residency: the National Commission on Recognition of Dental Specialties and Certifying Boards (NCRDSCB) lists three years of advanced education beyond the DDS/DMD for dental anesthesiology board certification, and CODA's accreditation floor is 36 months of full-time formal training.
Certification does not have to add years — you may apply for the ADBA written exam as early as six months before finishing residency, and ADBA puts its fastest complete exam run at approximately 14 months, because the written and oral exams cannot be taken in the same calendar year.
Step one: dental school and a state dental license
The phrase "dental anesthesiologist schooling" describes dental school.
You qualify first as a dentist: a DDS or DMD from a dental school accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA), then a license from the state board where you intend to work.
Licensure usually requires the degree plus written and clinical examinations, and the details vary by state.
The specialty you are preparing for is defined narrowly.
NCRDSCB defines dental anesthesiology as managing pain, anxiety and overall patient health during dental, oral, maxillofacial and adjunctive surgical or diagnostic procedures throughout the entire perioperative period.
The training that follows the DDS/DMD is scaled to that scope: a CODA-accredited residency of at least 36 months — not a weekend course.
One note on the phrase most people search — "dental anesthesiologist schooling years": the classroom years are the dental degree; the anesthesia years are the residency, not a separate track you can enter straight from undergrad.
When you reach the point of comparing residencies, the accredited programs are listed in the dental anesthesiology program directory.
Step two: the dental anesthesiology residency
CODA's accreditation standard for dental anesthesiology sets the duration in one line: a minimum of 36 months of full-time formal training.
In 2025-26 the average accredited program length was 36 months, so the floor and the reported reality coincide.
The months are not generic anesthesia exposure — CODA sets minimums inside the minimum.
Residents must spend at least 12 of the 36 months full-time on a hospital anesthesia service that provides trauma and/or emergency surgical care, and each resident must log at least 800 total cases of deep sedation/general anesthesia by the end of training.
The access points 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.
The economics: all 9 programs paid a stipend and none charged tuition or fees, and the average first-year stipend was $73,085.
For how residency applications, accreditation and certifying boards fit together across the specialties, see the dental residency overview — it explains that machinery once for all 12 specialties.
Board certification through the ADBA
Board certification is voluntary — NCRDSCB says so plainly — and it is not a license.
It is the specialty's recognized credential: the American Dental Board of Anesthesiology is the national certifying board for dental anesthesiology recognized by the National Commission, which granted that recognition in 2020.
Finish an accredited residency and you are what the National Commission calls "board eligible": dental school and the advanced residency done, exam eligibility open.
The sequence matters.
You apply to the written exam first — candidates have six years from finishing residency to apply, and may apply as early as six months before finishing.
The written exam is 220 multiple-choice questions with four hours allowed, computer-based, scored pass/fail.
The oral exam follows: two 45-minute sessions, one on adult patients and one on pediatric patients.
And the ADBA gates the oral exam on the state permit — candidates must hold a current, valid general anesthesia permit at the time of application — so the state permit (next section) usually comes before certification completes, not after.
Two practical details.
For its 2027 exam cycle the board lists application fees of $1,070 for the written exam and $2,292 for the oral exam.
And per NCRDSCB's table, the ADBA is the only recognized dental specialty board that lets graduates of non-CODA-accredited anesthesiology residencies for dentists apply, assessing each case for equivalence.
The state anesthesia permit
The residency makes you eligible; the state makes you legal.
Deep sedation and general anesthesia in dentistry are governed by state law, and the sedation permit systems differ from state to state — the names, the levels and the paperwork differ enough that the permit is a research project of its own.
These examples show the range:
- Texas — a TSBDE anesthesia permit is required 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 — two permits: Permit A for moderate (conscious) sedation and Permit B for deep sedation or general anesthesia.
- Massachusetts — individual permits under 234 CMR 6.00: Permit A (general anesthesia/deep sedation), B-1 (moderate sedation), B-2 (minimal sedation) and C (nitrous oxide-oxygen).
- Washington — a DQAC permit to administer moderate sedation with enteral agents, moderate sedation with parenteral agents, or deep sedation/general anesthesia; the general anesthesia permit covers both moderate levels.
- New York — a dentist may not use conscious sedation, deep sedation or general anesthesia anywhere outside a general hospital without a dental anesthesia certificate issued by the Education Department (Education Law §6605-a).
- 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.
- Michigan — takes a specialty-license route: the state may issue a dental specialty license in dental anesthesiology, and its rules bar a general dentist without that license (or an oral surgery specialty license) from giving general anesthesia or deep, moderate or minimal sedation in the office unless training and competency requirements are met.
- Tennessee — Limited Conscious Sedation, Comprehensive Conscious Sedation and Deep Sedation/General Anesthesia permits; the office where a permit holder sedates patients needs its own dental facility permit, and permit holders must complete at least 4 of the required 40 biennial CE hours in the subject of sedation and/or anesthesia.
- South Carolina — a separate track again: a special license from the Board of Dentistry is required before a dentist may announce or hold out as a specialist in an ADA-recognized specialty area.
Do not generalize from any one of these.
States also differ on whether a separate specialty license exists at all — Michigan may issue a specialty license in dental anesthesiology, South Carolina requires a special license to announce specialty practice, and some states do not.
Confirm the current rules with the state board where you intend to practice before you accept a job or sign a lease.
Permits are state law — verify yours
First job options after the permit
This is a small field, and the two bodies that count it count different things.
ADA HPI's Supply of Dentists data counted 159 professionally active dentists holding a certificate or degree in dental anesthesiology in 2025; NCRDSCB's April 2026 report counted 359 active ADBA diplomates as of December 31, 2025.
HPI counts credential-holders in practice, the ADBA counts its own diplomates — use each figure with its source attached.
For the anesthesia side of the job, the permit is the gate: a practice can offer deep sedation or general anesthesia only where someone holds the state's authorization — and the facility side is regulated too in Tennessee (a dental facility permit) and Montana (an initial office inspection).
That is the credential's value to a practice: it unlocks a service the practice cannot otherwise offer.
For what the role involves day to day, see the dental anesthesiologist career guide.
The adjacent path is oral and maxillofacial surgery: 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, so both paths include required anesthesia service training.
See how to become an oral surgeon for that route, which trades the anesthesia-focused caseload for a surgical one.
On pay: BLS carries separate detailed occupations only for general dentists, oral and maxillofacial surgeons, orthodontists and prosthodontists — dental anesthesiologists fall under "dentists, all other specialists" (29-1029), so any national figure you see is a group proxy.
How that plays out is covered in the dental anesthesiologist salary guide.
When you are ready to search, openings sit inside dentist listings: search dentist jobs on DentistryHires.