A comparison of two anesthesia methods for the surgical removal of maxillary third molars: PSA nerve block technique vs. local infiltration technique

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of PSA block injection with infiltration technique regarding local anesthesia for surgical extraction of upper third molar. Material and Methods: A prospective, intra individual, single-blind randomized controlled trial was designed to study the severity of pain during injection and after surgical extraction of the bilaterally and symmetrically similar upper third molar in a total of 53 patients, in addition to evaluating the need to repeat the injection and requirement of post operative anti-inflammatory tablets. Result: Although the average pain score for all studied times in PSA side was lower than the average pain score in infiltration technique, repeated statistical measures demonstrated that no significant pain reduction occurred in the two techniques. Conclusion: The both tested methods have the same statistic equivalence for the surgical extraction of maxillary third molars. Key words:Surgical extraction, maxillary third molars, PSA block, infiltration.