Abstract
Infiltration anesthesia is often employed in dental treatments and causes intense pain. Superficial anesthesia is used as pretreatment; however, its retention in the oral mucosa is poor and its anesthetic effect is unsatisfactory. A method was devised to relatively easily improve retainability of superficial anesthetic in the oral mucosa by placing a columnar piece of cotton near where superficial anesthetic is applied and pulling the lower lip anteriorly. This method was compared with a conventional method, i.e., closing the lips after application of superficial anesthetic. Using multiple superficial anesthetics, the appearance of the superficial anesthetic effect outside the application area and analgesic effect during infiltration anesthesia was evaluated in 10 healthy subjects. Alveolar mucosa of the lower incisor region was selected as the test site. The action time was set at 1 minute and pain was evaluated on insertion of the injection needle and infusion of the drug solution using a visual analogue scale. The analgesic effect during infusion of the drug solution was greater using the improved method than the conventional method. The effects of superficial anesthetics were noted outside the application area within 1 minute after drug application with the conventional method, but not with the improved method. These results suggest that the adverse effects of superficial anesthetics may be mitigated by improving retainability in the oral mucosa and that the improved method is effective for improving retainability of drugs in the oral mucosa.
