Clinical pain evaluation with intraoral vibration device during local anesthetic injections

Objectives: To evaluate the clinical pain during local anesthetic injection using such intra-oral device. Study Design: A comparative split-mouth clinical study to evaluate clinical pain was conducted among the subjects who required bilateral local anesthetic intra-oral injections. Results: A total of 99 subjects participated in the study out of which 39 were female. A total of 256 local anesthetic injections were administered to all the subjects with at least one pair of similar local anesthetic injections. Comparison of mean VAS score for anticipated pain in without vibration group was significantly higher in all types of nerve blocks when compared to that of with vibration. Similarly, the comparison of mean VAS score for actual pain in without vibration group was significantly higher in all types of nerve blocks when compared to that of with vibration. No significant difference in the mean VAS score was seen between anticipated and actual pain in without vibration group with respect to inferior alveolar (p=0.673), infra-orbital (p=0.175) and palatal (p=0.343) local anesthetic injections. The mean VAS score was significantly lower for actual pain when compared to anticipated pain in vibration group with respect to inferior alveolar (p<0.001) and infra-orbital (p=0.002) local anesthetic injections. Conclusions: There was significant reduction in the pain encountered during local anesthetic injection with the use of intra-oral vibration device. Key words:Pain, vibration, visual analogue scale, local anesthesia.