Courses For Dentists
The SAAD National Course in Conscious Sedation for Dentistry covers the underpinning knowledge and clinical skills required for the safe provision of conscious sedation in dental practice. The teaching faculty are the UK’s most experienced dental sedation teachers.
It is an excellent introduction to conscious sedation for 'New Starters' and a comprehensive refresher for practitioners wishing to ensure they remain up-to-date with sedation techniques and recommendations on best practice.
The programme is regularly updated in order to meet the changing needs of practitioners in general dental practice, Community Dental Shrive and hospital environments.
Course Content
Explain the principals of safe and effective conscious sedation using Basic (IACSD 2015) techniques (nitrous oxide/oxygen and midazolam
Describe patient assessment and treatment planning
Recognise potential airway and breathing difficulties
Understand the significance of medical problems, including concurrent medication
Describe the use of conscious sedation techniques including the administration of sedation drug/s, monitoring, recovery and discharge
Describe the recognition and management of sedation-related complications
Why choose this course
- Be taught by the UK's most experienced teachers of conscious sedation for dentistry
- Theoretical and practical instruction in all aspects of conscious sedation
- Discussion of behavioural and advanced techniques
- SAAD course handbook covering all aspects of the SAAD National Course
- Plentiful opportunities for individual questions and discussion with faculty members who have extensive personal experience of your branch of dentistry and the range of patients you treat
About Our Teaching
SAAD’s teaching is provided by a faculty which includes the most experienced teachers of dental sedation in the UK. Our course provides a sound foundation in basic conscious sedation techniques.
The SAAD National Course provides theoretical and practical instruction in all aspects relating to the current use of Conscious Sedation techniques. Mainstream techniques (intravenous midazolam and inhalation sedation) are covered in detail, and more advanced conscious sedation techniques are also discussed. (Advanced techniques must only be considered where practitioners have gained appropriate clinical supervision).
SAAD is well known for providing sound and entertaining training; an investment for patients and an enjoyable continuing professional dental education experience for practitioners
Meet Our Faculty
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Dr David Craig
David has over 35 years' experience teaching conscious sedation techniques to undergraduate students, dental and medical practitioners in the UK and abroad and has served on dental and multi-disciplinary groups preparing guidelines for safe sedation practice.
His interests include airway assessment, multi drug sedation techniques and promoting the effective and safe use of procedural conscious sedation in dentistry and medicine
David is a Consultant in Special Care Dentistry at Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and Visiting Professor at the University of Portsmouth. He is a Past president of SAAD and was the Course Director from 2001 until 2019Teaching Faculty, SAAD![]()
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Dr Carole Boyle
Carole is a Consultant in Special Care Dentistry at King’s College London Dental Institute, Guy’s, King’s College and St Thomas’ Hospitals.
Her particular interests are using sedation for people who require special care, and teaching sedation both to undergraduates and postgraduates.
She is the training programme director for Special Care Dentistry London Deanery and manages the Special Care GA service at GSTT.
SAAD Assistant Course Director, Past President & Honorary Life Member, SAAD![]()
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Dr Leah Adams
Leah is a GDP and sedation lead in a private dental practice in Cheltenham. She has a special interest in treating anxious children and adults and providing conscious sedation, as well as teaching sedation and mentoring dentists and nurses. Leah gained her MSc in conscious sedation at Cardiff University and continued to teach on the MSc course for several years.
GDP in Cheltenham & SAAD Trustee, SAAD![]()
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Dr Prableen Anand
Prableen is currently a Consultant and Honorary Clinical Lecturer in Paediatric Dentistry at The Eastman Dental Hospital, University College Hospitals NHS Trust, London. Her areas of special interest are sedation, pain control, oral surgery, trauma and general anaesthesia. She is the lead on general anaesthesia and IV sedation in the department.
Consultant in Paediatric Dentistry, Eastman Dental Hospital, SAAD![]()
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Dr Mike Clarke
Mike qualified from Cardiff in 1979 and practised in North Yorkshire until 2005. He worked with DPL from 1995 until 2017; as an advisor for many years and then as the Head of Dental Underwriting Policy. He has been active in dental politics for many years and is a regular contributor to the dental press. He is a past chairman of the Dental Practitioners' Association, a former member of the Department of Health's Standing Dental Advisory Committee and a past vice-chairman of the BDA’s Private Practice Committee. He is currently a senior member of the Research Ethic Committee.
Former Head of Risk at Dental Protection Ltd., SAAD![]()
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Mrs Jilly Gooby
Gilly is a registered general nurse with a background of senior nursing posts in ITU, ED, general nursing and has been a Resus Officer for over 20 years, working within the NHS and also privately for her own company, Southern Resuscitation Services Ltd. Gilly is a Resuscitation Council instructor in both adult and paediatric, basic, immediate and advanced life support, teaching regularly both nationally and intentionally for a variety of health care settings.
Resuscitation Council Instructor, Adult and Paediatric, Basic, Immediate and Advanced Life Support., SAAD![]()
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Dr Jennifer Hare
Working within dental settings for over 10-years, Jen contributes to the teaching of dentists and dental-professionals within the NHS and in her KCL role. She has been a member of the SAAD Digest editorial board and teaching faculty since 2014.
Her research interests include cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for dental fear, including the use of virtual reality (VR) for exposure in the treatment of dental phobia, as well as communication, risk screening and behaviour change in the dental setting.
Jen is a Consultant Health Psychologist at Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and leads the Dental Psychology Service; providing input for individuals with dental phobia, oro-facial pain and orthognathic surgical assessments.
Consultant Health Psychologist. KCL Dental Institute, SAAD![]()
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Dr Christopher Holden
Chris practises as a general dental practitioner in Derbyshire. He has been an author of most national guidance documents on dental sedation in the last 15 years. Chris regularly provides expert evidence in the UK, Europe and worldwide and is immediate past president of The International Federation of Dental anaesthesiology Societies.
Past President and Trustee of SAAD, GDP Derbyshire, SAAD![]()
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Dr Steve Jones
Stephen is Clinical Lead for Conscious Sedation in the School of Dentistry, University of Central Lancashire. In his previous role as a Clinical Director he was involved in the organisation and development of dental sedation within the Truste-based dental service in Cumbria. He gained the Diploma in Conscious Sedation from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1997.
President of SAAD, SAAD![]()
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Mrs Emma Lee
Emma taught for many years in the department of Sedation and Special Care Dentistry at Guy’s Hospital. She is currently working as a Training and Development Manager for Lincolnshire Community Health Services.
SAAD Assessed Sedation Nurse (SASN) scheme Co-ordinator, SAAD![]()
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Dr Yi Kwan Loo
Yi is Deputy Sedation Lead in the Paediatric Department, King’s College Dental Institute. After completing the Diploma in Conscious Sedation, Newcastle University, she provided advanced adult and paediatric sedation as a GDP and teaches undergraduates and postgraduates throughout the UK.
Her interests include provision of advanced paediatric sedation, training for the undergraduate and postgraduate dental team and promoting safe collaborative team working.
Yi is a Paediatric Specialty Registrar and Deputy Sedation Lead based at King’s College Dental Institute and Kent Community Health Foundation Trust. She is a SAAD Trustee and Assistant Editor of the SAAD Digest.
Deputy Sedation Lead, Paediatric Dental Department at King’s College Dental Institute & SAAD Trustee, SAAD![]()
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Dr Najla Nizarali
Najla is a full time member of staff at KCL Dental Institute, in the Department of Sedation and Special Care Dentistry. She is involved in teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students in the department and in treating patients with a variety of sedation techniques.
Lecturer, KCL Dental Institute, SAAD![]()
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Dr Damien Reilly
Damien is a Consultant in Special Care Dentistry. In addition to this appointment at Surrey and Sussex Healthcare, he also teaches in the Department of Sedation and Special Care Dentistry at Guy's Hospital.Damien has a particular interest in the provision of sedation for obese patients.
Consultant in Special Care Dentistry at Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, SAAD![]()
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Mrs Toni Richman
Toni has for many years assisted and demonstrated on the techniques of Conscious Dental Sedation. She has presented at numerous post graduate courses within the UK and Ireland. She is a Senior Dental Nurse in Billingshurst, West Sussex.
Course Administrator, SAAD![]()
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Dr Laleh Sharifian
Laleh has been providing Conscious Intravenous Sedation for adults in the primary care setting for over 15 years. She is also involved with the provision of sedation related CPD and ILS courses for dental practices in accordance with GDC guidelines.
Laleh has an interest in the emotional management of the anxious dental patient and making sedation accessible for GDPs so that they are able to offer this to their patients.
Laleh is a peripatetic sedationist covering dental practices in the south east of UK and providing intravenous sedation services. Laleh also still works as a GDP one day a week in practice.
GDP London & Peripatetic Sedationist, SAAD![]()
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Dr Zahra Shehabi
Zahra is a Consultant in Special Care Dentistry at the Royal London Dental Hospital. She completed MSc's in Sedation and Special Care Dentistry in 2011 (Kings College, London) and Healthcare Management in 2016 (City University, London). Zahra is heavily involved in undergraduate and postgraduate sedation teaching and is a member of the SAAD Teaching Faculty. Her clinical interests include intravenous sedation (basic and advanced techniques) for patients with challenging behaviour and those undergoing implant surgery.
Consultant in Special Care Dentistry at Barts Health & SAAD Trustee, SAAD![]()
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Dr Emily Sherwin
Emily has over 12 years’ experience providing conscious sedation to dental patients in both a community and hospital setting. She continues to be involved with undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and training in conscious sedation.
Her interests include providing sedation for patients with learning disabilities and complex medical needs along with advanced sedation techniques. She is involved with the development and delivery of postgraduate education courses in conscious sedation.
Emily is a Consultant in Special Care Dentistry at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and an Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at the Dental Institute, King’s College London.
Consultant, Department of Sedation and Special Care Dentistry, Guy's Hospital, SAAD![]()
New starter?
Under current IACSD guidance, any practitioner who was not practising sedation independently prior to April 2015, is designated a 'New Starter' and will need to undergo a period of supervised clinical practice before being able to practise sedation independently.
The SAAD National course provides the required underpinning knowledge and also an introduction to the clinical skills for sedation, but it is then necessary to undertake supervised clinical experience before embarking on independent practice.
If you are a new starter, and not completing your supervised sedation experience as part of a University or Postgraduate Deanery run training scheme, or with a STAC approved supervisor, then you should also consider registering for the SAAD Assessed Sedationist (SAS) scheme. The SAS scheme follows on from attendance of the SAAD National Course but please note that the registration deadline is prior to attending the SAAD National Course.
Link to SAS scheme page- further details and registration
RESERVE a place on the SAAD National Course
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Courses with places available
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Dental and Medical Practitioners National Course in Conscious Sedation for Dentistry
MAR 12-13, 2022 Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road CampusMAR 12-13
IACSD
‘Standards for Conscious Sedation in the Provision of Dental Care’ (April 2015)
Following publication of the IACSD standards in April 2015, dentists, doctors, dental hygienists/therapists and dental nurses who have no previous experience in conscious sedation for dentistry must now undertake appropriate training before commencing independent clinical practice.
All training programmes for ‘new starters’ must include supervised clinical experience and have external validation. UK university-based courses and those run by Postgraduate Deaneries are deemed to be compliant. Other courses leading to independent (i.e. unsupervised) practice, including those run by private providers, must be accredited by the Sedation Training and Accreditation Committee (STAC) of IACSD.
The IACSD Standards state that practitioners offering supervised clinical experience in conscious sedation must now be accredited by a university, deanery or IACSD (p34, 86).