Most dentists reach the same point eventually. A patient walks in who cannot be treated in the chair a child too young to cooperate, an adult with a severe gag reflex, a non-verbal patient with complex needs, or a treatment plan so extensive that spreading it across six appointments is worse for everyone than doing it in one sitting under general anaesthetic.
At that point the options narrow quickly. Public waiting lists run long. Private hospital theatre access is difficult to obtain without admitting rights, and hospital admission fees push the total cost beyond what many families can manage. Hiring a purpose-built dental day-surgery theatre is the third path, and it is the one most general dentists end up taking.
If you are weighing up GA theatre hire for the first time, these are the questions worth asking before you commit to a facility.
Who keeps the patient relationship?
This is the first thing to settle, and it matters more than the theatre itself. In a genuine facility-hire arrangement you remain the treating dentist. You plan the treatment, you carry it out, and the patient comes back to your clinic for their review and their ongoing care. The facility supplies the room and the clinical support around you.
Ask directly whether the facility employs dentists of its own and whether your patient will be invited back to them. A facility that treats your referral as its own new patient is not offering theatre hire it is offering to take over the case.
How is the anaesthetic arranged?
Dental general anaesthesia requires a specialist anaesthetist, and how that relationship is structured affects your patient's cost and your own administrative load.
At Advanced Sleep Dental Solutions the anaesthetic is provided by our partner Sleep Dentistry Services, who bring their own anaesthetic team and equipment to each list. They run the pre-operative medical clearance, calculate the Medicare rebate for the anaesthetic, and bill the patient directly. You do not have to source an anaesthetist, coordinate their availability, or handle their invoicing.
Ask who holds clinical responsibility for the anaesthetic, what pre-operative assessment is carried out, and what happens if a patient is found unsuitable after you have already quoted them.
What is actually included?
Theatre hire means different things at different facilities. Establish what comes with the room:
- Operating theatre and recovery suite
- Clinical nursing cover through the procedure and recovery
- Dental assistant, if you are not bringing your own
- Instruments and consumable materials, if you are not bringing your own
Many visiting dentists prefer to bring their own instruments and their own assistant, and hire the facility alone. Others would rather arrive with nothing but their loupes. Both should be available, and the difference should be clearly priced rather than bundled invisibly.
Which patients can the facility accept?
Eligibility limits vary and they determine whether the facility solves your problem or only half of it. Worth confirming:
- Age Some facilities set a minimum age of four. ASDS has no minimum age treatment for children under four was approved in July 2026.
- BMI Ours accepts patients up to a BMI of 50.
- Complexity Special needs, non-verbal and severely anxious patients should be core business, not an exception the facility reluctantly accommodates.
- Case length Ask what the maximum list duration is. Procedures expected to run beyond five and a half hours need anaesthetist review before they are booked.
When can you operate?
A theatre that only runs weekday mornings is of limited use to a practice that cannot close its books. ASDS operates Monday to Saturday, 7am to 7pm, which allows a Saturday list where the whole day belongs to your patients and your own clinic keeps running through the week.
Ask how far ahead dates are released, how many patients you can put on one list, and how much notice is needed to change a booking.
How will the patient be billed?
Transparency here prevents the most common complaint in GA dentistry, which is a patient who thought they understood the cost and did not.
A dental GA patient at ASDS receives three separate invoices:
- Your treatment fee, from your clinic. Not Medicare claimable.
- The facility fee, from ASDS. Not Medicare claimable.
- The anaesthetic fee, from Sleep Dentistry Services. Partly Medicare claimable.
Our facility fee is charged hourly, in whole-hour increments, with a specialist loading for patients under 13 and patients with additional needs. There is no hospital admission fee and no GST, which is the single largest cost difference between a dental day surgery and a private hospital theatre. Contact us for the current rate card.
Only the anaesthetic portion attracts a Medicare rebate. Any facility that implies otherwise is setting your patient up for an unpleasant surprise.
What paperwork is involved?
For a first booking you should expect a facility hire agreement setting out the terms, and a patient booking form covering the patient's details, medical history and Medicare information. That should be the extent of it. If getting started requires more than an afternoon of administration, ask why.
See it before you book
Photographs flatter every theatre ever built. If you are going to bring a patient somewhere and treat them there, walk through it first look at the recovery bays, the emergency equipment, the sterilisation area, and the room you will actually be working in.
Advanced Sleep Dental Solutions is at 664 Mountain Hwy, Bayswater, and visiting dentists are welcome to come through. If it is easier to look from your desk first, there is a short video tour of the theatre and recovery suite at https://youtu.be/6ZOAfiyrDL0.
To discuss a particular patient or arrange a walkthrough, call 03 9069 3103 or email team@advancedsleepdental.com.au.
