Sucrose solution for alleviating needle pain during inferior alveolar nerve block in children aged 7–10 years: a randomized clinical trial

BACKGROUND: Intraoral local anesthesia is essential for delivering dental care; however, injection of this local anesthetic is perceived as the most painful and distressing agent for children, parents, and healthcare providers. Reducing pain as much as possible is essential to ensure smooth subsequent treatment procedures, especially in pediatric dentistry. In clinical practice, oral sucrose administration has been reported to decrease the pain during heel lance and cold pressor tests in neonates and children. This study aimed to determine whether the prior administration of a 30% sucrose solution reduced the pain related to inferior alveolar nerve block in children. METHODS: A total of 42 healthy children aged 7–10 years requiring dental treatment of mandibular molars involving inferior alveolar nerve block were recruited. The participants’ demographic details were recorded, height and weight were measured, and the anesthetic injection was delivered after receiving the respective intraoral sucrose solution and distilled water by the intervention (group 1) and control (group 2) group participants for 2 min. The subjective pain perceived during injection was measured using an animated emoji scale. The pain scores between the groups were compared using the Mann–Whitney U test. RESULTS: The median pain score and range for the intervention and control groups were 4 (2 – 6) and 6 (4 – 8), respectively, and statistically significant differences (P < 0.001) were observed in the intervention group. Age, sex, height, and weight did not influence the analgesic effect of the sucrose solution. CONCLUSION: Oral administration of sucrose may relieve pain associated with inferior alveolar nerve block in children.