Clinical Study on Safe Use of Local Dental Anesthetics for Children

Abstract

Clinical investigation on the conditions of actual use and secondary reactions of local anesthetics for children was performed to elucidate the safe use of local anesthetics. Data were collected from 4,145 subjects: 3,890 from the pediatric clinics of university hospitals, and 255 from the private pediatric clinics.
The results were as follows:
1) The age of the subjects ranged up to over 20 years, and children under 12 years of age accounted for about 90%.
2) The ratio of subjects with systemic disease or allergy amounted to over 20%, and asthma was the most frequent disease.
3) The ratio of children new to local dental anesthetics was 16.2%.
4) Local anesthesia was applied not only to pulp and surgical treatment but also to restoratory treatment.
5) Lidocaine with epinephrine was most frequently used as the local anesthetic drug. The dose of the drugs used was mostly under 1.0ml.
6) There were complaints of discomfort from some patients (during surgery 2.6%, after surgery 2.6%). The majority concerned pain, numbness and bite injury, so cases suspected of secondary reactions of local anesthetic drug were very rare.