Pain management following dental trauma and surgical procedures.

Surgical procedures and post-traumatic management of dental patients require effective pain management during treatment, but being considerably more invasive than conservative treatments, pain management is required into the postoperative period. Clinical trials on pain intensity following dental surgical procedures (e.g.

A randomized split-mouth clinical trial comparing pain experienced during palatal injections with two different computer-controlled local anesthetic delivery systems.

Background: Several methods have been proposed to reduce pain during injection. The main aim to this study was to compare the pain perception in patients receiving palatal injections of local anesthesia using two different computer-controlled local anesthetic delivery systems (C-CLAD) - Dentapen® and The STA Wand®).

Material And Methods: A randomized, split-mouth and simple blind clinical trial was carried out at the Dental Hospital of the University of Barcelona (Spain) involving a sample of 20 healthy volunteers.

Medical emergencies in the dental surgery. Part 1: Preparation of the office and basic management.

Statement Of The Problem: Medical emergencies can and do happen in the dental surgery. In the 20- to 30-year practice lifetime of the typical dentist, he/she will encounter between five and seven emergency situations. Being prepared in advance of the emergency increases the likelihood of a successful outcome.

Faster onset and more comfortable injection with alkalinized 2% lidocaine with epinephrine 1:100,000.

Background: The pH of lidocaine with epinephrine in dental cartridges ranges between 2.9 and 4.4.

Local anesthesia part 2: technical considerations.

An earlier paper by Becker and Reed provided an in-depth review of the pharmacology of local anesthetics. This continuing education article will discuss the importance to the safe and effective delivery of these drugs, including needle gauge, traditional and alternative injection techniques, and methods to make injections more comfortable to patients.

Is the mandibular nerve block passé?

Background: Providing effective pain control is a critical part of dental treatment, yet achieving consistently reliable anesthesia in the mandible has proved elusive. The traditional inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB) has a high failure rate; for example, the failure rate in lateral incisors is 81 percent. As a consequence, new approaches and techniques have been developed.

The use of phentolamine mesylate to evaluate mandibular nerve damage following implant placement.

High success rates and long-term predictability of implant therapy have been well documented in the literature. However, complications in implant treatment can arise and include sensory disturbances, especially in the posterior mandible in areas close to the inferior alveolar nerve. Treatment efficacy of sensory disturbances caused by implant placement in this area relies on the expeditious diagnosis of an induced paresthesia.

Needle breakage: incidence and prevention.

Since the introduction of nonreusable, stainless steel dental local anesthetic needles, needle breakage has become an extremely rare complication of dental local anesthetic injections. But although rare, dental needle breakage can, and does, occur. Review of the literature and personal experience brings into focus several commonalities which, when avoided, can minimize the risk of needle breakage with the fragment being retained from occurring.

Local anesthesia reversal.

PM (OraVerse) enables the dentist or dental hygienist (where permitted) to significantly decrease the duration of residual STA in patients where such numbness may prove to be potentially injurious (children, geriatric, and special needs patients), or a negative influence on their quality of life (speaking, eating, negative body image). (Note: As of August 3, 2009, dental hygienists are permitted to administer PM in the following states: Alaska, Arkansas, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin.)

Cardiovascular alterations after injection of 2% lidocaine with norepinephrine 1:50,000 (xylestesin) in rats.

The purpose of the present study is to determine the cardiovascular effects produced by intravascular injection of 2% lidocaine with 20 microg/mL of norepinephrine on systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial pressures and heart rate of rats at the following times: control period, during the injection (first 15 seconds), during the first minute, and at the end of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 minutes after drug administration. The study was performed on 13 male Wistar rats with weights between 200 grams and 220 grams that were awake during the recording of these parameters. The dose administered was proportional to 1 cartridge of local anesthetic (1.

Local anesthetics: dentistry's most important drugs, clinical update 2006.

Local anesthetics are the safest most effective drugs in medicine for the control and management of pain. They also represent the most important drugs in dentistry. Today, dentistry has a spectrum of local anesthetics that permit pain control to be tailored to the specific needs of the patient: short-, intermediate-, and long-acting drugs.

Midazolam premedication in children: a pilot study comparing intramuscular and intranasal administration.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of intramuscular and intranasal midazolam used as a premedication before intravenous conscious sedation. Twenty-three children who were scheduled to receive dental treatment under intravenous sedation participated. The patients ranged in age from 2 to 9 years (mean age, 5.

Emergency medicine in pediatric dentistry: preparation and management.

Medical emergencies can and do occur in the practice of dentistry. Although most emergencies take place in adults, serious problems can also develop in younger patients. The contemporary dentist must be prepared to manage expeditiously and effectively those few problems that do arise.

Nitrous oxide-oxygen: a new look at a very old technique.

Inhalation sedation utilizing nitrous oxide-oxygen has been a primary technique in the management of dental fears and anxieties for more than 150 years and remains so today. Though other, more potent, anesthetics have been introduced, nitrous oxide is still the most used gaseous anesthetic in the world. Administered properly with well-maintained equipment, the nitrous oxide-oxygen technique has an extremely high success rate coupled with a very low rate of adverse effects and complications.