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. 2014 Jul;6(Suppl 1):S113-7.
doi: 10.4103/0975-7406.137407.

Comparative clinical evaluation of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator over conventional local anesthesia in children seeking dental procedures: A clinical study

M Varadharaja  1 , J Udhya  2 , Ila Srinivasan  3 , Jambai Sampath Kumar Sivakumar  4 , Ramasamy Sundararajan Karthik  5 , M Manivanan  6
Affiliations

Comparative clinical evaluation of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator over conventional local anesthesia in children seeking dental procedures: A clinical study

M Varadharaja et al. J Pharm Bioallied Sci. 2014 Jul.

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study to evaluate the effectiveness of pain control by employing transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator (TENS) over conventional injectable local anesthesia for children requiring restorative procedures under rubber dam.

Materials and methods: The study design considered was the split mouth design, in experiment (right) side, dental procedures under rubber dam was performed under TENS and in control (left) side, dental procedures under rubber dam was performed under conventional injectable local anesthetic (LA). The level of comfort and discomfort experienced during TENS and conventional LA was determined using visual analog scale (VAS) and heart rate.

Result: Increase in mean heart rate associated with TENS (0.78%) was significantly less compared to increase in heart rate with administration of conventional local anesthesia (11.78%). In VAS, the mean values for pain indicate that minimum pain was felt with TENS, which was closely followed by LA.

Conclusion: TENS can offer many safer and psychological advantages and is a valuable alternative to conventional LA for children.

Keywords: Heart rate; local anesthesia; transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation; visual analog scale.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator
Figure 2
Figure 2
Study design
Figure 3
Figure 3
Experiment group (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator)
Figure 4
Figure 4
Visual analog scale
Figure 5
Figure 5
Control group (local anesthetic)
Bar diagram 1
Bar diagram 1
Visual analog score w.r.t transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator and infiltration (local anesthetic)
Bar diagram 2
Bar diagram 2
Increase in heart rate w.r.t transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator and infiltration (local anesthetic)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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