SAAD - Trustees

Meet the SAAD Trustees

All of the SAAD trustees and advisors are volunteers.

Yi Loo
President

Yi is a Consultant in Paediatric Dentistry at King's College Hospital, London providing specialist care under sedation for children and young people with dental anomalies, dental trauma and medical complexity. She completed the Diploma in Conscious Sedation at Newcastle University and has a background as a GDP providing advanced adult and paediatric sedation, as part of an experienced multidisciplinary team.

Thomas Lees
President-Elect

Thomas is a Specialist in Oral Surgery and departmental clinical lead for sedation at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust. He completed a Post-graduate diploma in Conscious Sedation for Dentistry at Cardiff University and provides clinical sedation teaching / mentoring to Dental Core Trainees, Oral Surgery Specialty Trainees and Specialty Dentists. He also runs sedation study days for NHS England and local / regional dental teams.

Thomas also undertakes IV sedation in a local specialist dental practice.

Manni Deol
Hon. Secretary

Manni has been a general dental practitioner for 25 years working in NHS and private practice, based in the West Midlands. Her special interests include Sedation and Teaching. She provides intravenous sedation at her practice and has worked in the Department of Sedation and Special Care Dentistry at Guys Hospital in the past. Manni's other roles include Foundation training (17 years experience) and being an elected member of the LDC Coventry.

Paul Howlett
Treasurer

Paul works as a GDP in a private multi-disciplinary dental practice in Teesside. His specific areas of interest are managing anxious patients and more complex restorative care including dental implants. Previously, Paul spent 5 years working as part of a dedicated team providing advanced conscious sedation techniques for paediatric patients and continues to use single drug intravenous and inhalation sedation as part of his daily clinical practice. Paul has been a SAAD trustee since 2012.

Carole Boyle
Course Director

Carole is a Consultant and Clinical Lead for Special Care Dentistry at Guy’s, and St Thomas’ Hospitals in London. Her particular interests are using sedation for people who require special care, teaching sedation both to undergraduates and postgraduates and providing dental care under general anaesthesia. She is a member of Dental Council at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Chloe Bass

Chloe Bass is a Senior Dental Officer in Oral Surgery working across Central London Community Healthcare (CLCH) NHS Trust and Whittington Health NHS Trust. She has a particular interest in conscious sedation, service development, and the management of anxious patients requiring oral surgery.
Alongside her clinical practice, Chloe is actively involved in education, clinical governance, and the supervision of postgraduate trainees. She is currently working towards specialist recognition in Oral Surgery and has a strong interest in clinical leadership, service innovation, and the continual improvement of patient care

Simon Chaplin-Rogers

Simon qualified in December 1979 at University College Hospital Medical & Dental School [UCHMS]. Post qualification followed six months as a Dental House Surgeon at UCH, before being awarded the medical place qualifying in Medicine in 1984. Then followed a medical rotation training for the next 5 years – his last year being as an SHO/registrar in Anaesthetics / Intensive care based on the Middlesex Hospital rotation.
He would describe himself as a traditional family dentist with a wide range of skills to support this role. His special interest both as a tutor and in practice is sedation dentistry and taking care of the very nervous patients.
Simon is currently the clinical lead for a 12-surgery dental partnership led group and has played an active role in the executive of the LDC Hampshire, with a period as Chairman – mentoring colleagues and practices in need of support.

Stephanie Fenesan

Stephanie is a specialist in Special Care Dentistry working across Hertfordshire and London. She completed her speciality training in the Department of Sedation and Special Care Dentistry at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals in London and completed her Masters in Special Care Dentistry at King’s College London Dental Institute in 2021. Her clinical interests include providing dental care and conscious sedation for patients with learning disabilities and additional needs.

Rick Kerr

Rick is an oral surgeon (OS) working in both secondary care as an Associate Specialist within a maxillofacial unit and in primary care with an OS specialist contract and a specialist dental practice.
He obtained a diploma in conscious sedation from Newcastle Dental Hospital and provides IV sedation in both primary and secondary care and IHS in hospital. We also trains both DCTs and STRs in sedation.

Ronan Lee

Ronan is a private dentist practicing in Leicester Square and Stanmore, and is currently undertaking a part-time postgraduate MSc in Implant Dentistry at the Eastman Dental Hospital. He has an interest in working with dentally anxious patients while integrating sustainable practices into sedation, by utilising a combination of traditional pharmacological with non-pharmacological methods.

Nigel Robb
Editor of the SAAD Digest

Nigel is a Reader/Hon. Professor Restorative Dentistry and Educational Lead for Sedation and Special Care Dentistry at Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia. He has a vast experience in the subject of Conscious Sedation having co-authored one of the standard text books on the subject. He is an authority and renowned international speaker on the subject of Conscious Sedation.

Laleh Sharifian

Laleh has been a GDP in a private practice in London for over 20 years, providing IV Sedation in primary care and started a peripatetic IV sedation service 6 years ago following a demand in this niche. She now limits her service to this field and sedates in over 30 practices in the South East of England. Laleh is part of the faculty at SAAD; teaches and runs life support training courses, (D)ILS, for sedation practices and also undertakes expert witness work in relation to sedation. Laleh is an examiner for the royal college of surgeons of Edinburgh and a sedation mentor for dentists.

Ashleigh Stamp

Ashleigh is a Clinical Fellow at Newcastle University School of Dental Sciences. She works within paediatric dentistry providing patient care and clinical teaching to dental and dental therapy undergraduates as well as supporting postgraduate education within the region. Ashleigh completed the Diploma in Conscious Sedation at Newcastle University and has a background working as a GDP providing conscious sedation to adults and children in primary care. Ashleigh is currently undertaking a PhD relating to behavioural support for young people receiving surgical dental care.

Imran Suida

Imran is a specialist in Oral Surgery with 13 years experience of delivering conscious sedation to anxious patients, allowing them to receive complex care in a calm and relaxed environment. He is one of only a few surgeons who is able to help patients with either jaw pain or a gag reflex with the use of acupuncture. His main interests lie in treating anxious patients and performing complex surgical procedures, including removal of buried and broken teeth, management of dental cysts and dental implants.

Co-opted Board Members

Deputy Course Director

Najla Nizarali

Najla is a consultant in Sedation and Special Care Dentistry at Guys and St Thomas' Hospital and an honorary senior lecturer for Kings College London. She is also the Conscious Sedation Lead for Guys, St Thomas’, Harefield and Brompton hospitals. Najla provides training in conscious sedation to undergraduate and postgraduate students, and carries out procedures both as operator-sedationist and as a peripatetic sedationist. She has a special interest in education relating to Special Care Dentistry and provision of dental services to haematology patients and other patients requiring special care dentistry, using sedation techniques as appropriate.

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.

Advisors to the Board

Christopher Holden
SAAD Safe Sedation Practice Committee Lead

Chris led a practice devoted to pain and anxiety control for over 40 years. He has been an author of many national guidance documents on dental sedation since chairing the first dental sedation standards document in 2000. His awareness and interest in quality assurance risk management is underpinned by having a variety of aircraft licences. Chris provides expert evidence in the UK, Europe and worldwide and is a past president of SAAD and of The International Federation of Dental Anaesthesiology Societies. He leads the SAAD Safe Sedation Practice Committee.

Michael Allen

Michael ‘Mick’ Allen sedated his first patient in 1986 as a student at UCL. This started a life-long interest in sedation as a clinician and teacher until his retirement as Consultant in Sedation and Special Care Dentistry in Cardiff University Dental Hospital. He is currently part-time Clinical and Dental Director for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board in SE Wales.

Updated 05.10.2025