Medical Emergencies for the Dental Team

Who is Dr Wraith?

qualified as a dentist - has worked in primary care

qualified as a doctor - has worked in Accident and Emergency and Anaesthesia

over 25 years experience providing sedation for dentistry in the primary care setting

trained in Advanced Life Support

After qualifying in dentistry from Kings College London Andrea went into general practice where she quickly realised the importance of good anxiety and pain control so began providing anaesthetic services for her patients; seeing what a difference this made it became her mission to promote the use of safe and effective sedation in healthcare… so more patients could benefit.

With this in mind she became involved in various national and international dental organisations - she was a council member of SAAD (the Society for the Advancement of Anaesthesia in Dentistry), EFAAD (the European equivalent) and was the European representative to IFDAS (the International Federation of Dental Anaesthesiology Societies).

Wanting to increase her knowledge and experience she returned to university first to complete a Masters degree in dental anaesthesia and then to read medicine at Cambridge. Once qualified as a doctor she went on to work in both Accident and Emergency and anaesthesia at St Thomas' Hospital in London. During this time she became involved with the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM), becoming a council member of the Section of Anaesthesia in 2005 and President of that Section from 2016 to 2017. During her time at the RSM she ran a number of sedation courses and meetings to promote the provision of safe sedation in medicine and dentistry. She also worked with the Royal College of Anaesthetists in matters relating to sedation.

Andrea has lectured both nationally and internationally on sedation and the management of medical emergencies in the dental clinic. She organised the scientific programme for an international conference on anxiety and pain control in dentistry for IFDAS in 2003, designed and set up the Eastman sedation course for doctors and dentists in 2004 and lectured on St George’s Hospital sedation course for non-anaesthetists for a number of years.

She has acted as an expert advisor to local health authorities investigating serious incidents related to sedation in dental clinics and has advised on standards of care in sedation clinics; undertaking inspections of such clinics for both private companies and local health authorities to ensure the clinics meet current standards. She has  been involved in setting up a number of new sedation clinics; advising on suitable sedation techniques, staff training, equipment provision, and helping the clinics design protocols and procedures to provide safe and effective sedation.

In 2022 Andrea left clinical medicine to concentrate on using her knowledge and experience to provide education and training to dental teams working in primary care.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Andrea is a keen sports woman and has fenced for the UK at international level, winning a bronze in the team event at the 1998 Commonwealth Fencing Championships. She also has a full blue from Cambridge for fencing and won her blades rowing for her college whilst at Cambridge. She enjoys long distance and cross country running and has run mountain marathons - completing the OMM (formally known as the KIMM) on two occasions – although, sadly, she is currently ‘very much’ out of training!

In 2007 Andrea spent a month living with the Mentawai tribe in the Indonesian jungle; this was filmed as part of the Tribal Wives series shown on BBC2 in 2008

 … Andrea also has a passion for motorbikes and rescuing animals! 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------