Learn how to better prevent medical emergencies from occuring while treating dental patients.  Also, how to manage and treat dental patients who are experiencing medical emergencies with the aid of your dental staff.

• Ernest E. Valdez, D.D.S.
  • DR. ERNEST VALDEZ is a native of San Antonio, Texas. He earned his Bachelors of Science in Biology from St. Mary’s University and his Doctorate of Dental Surgery from the prestigious University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA).
    
    Upon completion of dental school in 1993, Dr. Valdez entered community health as a staff dentist at Las Clinical Del Norte, a community health center in rural North Central New Mexico, where he also was active as a volunteer firefighter and first-responder for the community of Ojo Caliente. Dr. Valdez eventually moved to Harlingen, Texas in the Lower Rio Grande Valley to serve as the dental director of a community health center, Su Clinica Familiar.
    
    In 1999, Dr. Valdez returned to the UTHSCSA completing a two-year General Practice Residency with intensive training in hospital-based dentistry, oral surgical techniques, implant dentistry, advanced dental techniques, and intravenous sedation. In 2001, Dr. Valdez entered private practice as an associate dentist in a dental practice in north San Antonio before being invited to apply for a faculty position at the UTHSCSA as a general dentist in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMS). He held a full-time position as an Assistant Clinical Professor for 11 years with the Department of OMS providing clinical instruction with direct patient contact at both the UTHSCSA and The University Health System – University Hospital. Here he presented lectures on various OMS and sedation topics to dental students, OMS residents, and general dentists, while treating his private patients at UTHSCSA Faculty Practice Clinic, and holding various committee and board appointments at the UTHSCSA.
    
    In 2014, Dr. Valdez decided to leave the University and return to private practice as an associate general dentist providing sedation, oral surgical, and general dental services. Dr. Valdez continues to lecture for the UTHSCSA presenting continuing dental education courses in Nitrous Oxide Sedation, Enteral Sedation, and Medical Emergency Prevention and Management in the Dental Office as well as offers an online sedation course.
    
    During his spare time, Dr. Valdez enjoys community service, hiking, and playing guitar.
    
    Dr. Valdez’s Associations and Affiliations:
    - American Dental Society of Anesthesiology
    - Special Care Dentistry Organization
    - American Association of Hospital Dentists
    - The International Association of Student Clinicians
    - Founding member of the Lone Star Dental Sedation Study Club. You may contact this author at valdeze@uthscsa.edu