Electronic dental anesthesia versus topical anesthesia for the control of pain caused by nasopalatine block injections

Abstract

Topical anesthetics are routinely used to reduce the pain and discomfort that patients may experience during dental injections. Just recently, however, an anesthesia (Electronic Dental Anesthesia or EDA) which works by transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) was introduced to the dental profession. The purpose of this study was to determine whether an electrical signal as provided by an EDA is more effective than topical anesthesia in reducing pain and discomfort caused by local anesthetic injections. Two nasopalatine block injections, one using and EDA as the adjunct, and the other using a topical anesthetic ointment of Xylocaine 5% were performed on thirty-four patients. The volunteers were asked on the spot to report the level of the pain they felt during the penetration of the needle to the mucosa, during the deposition of local anesthetic solution, and their overall evaluation of the injections. The results of this investigation showed that the EDA is the more effective adjunct for local anesthetic injections compared to the traditional topical anesthetics.