Determination of Onset of Action and Efficacy of Topical Lignocaine Anesthesia in Children: An In Vivo Study

Anxiety is one of the major issues in the dental treatment in children and needle is the most anxiety provoking armamentarium. For this reason, pediatric dentists are on a constant search to find more comfortable means for administering anesthesia. Topical anesthesia has proven to be a boon in this attempt. Literature shows that quite often there is little pain relief from topical anesthesia and one reason for failure may be that there is no consensus regarding the most appropriate time duration for topical anesthesia to anesthetize intraoral tissue prior to injection. Therefore, the aim and objectives of the study are as follows: (1) To determine duration for onset of action of lignocaine gel and lignocaine spray used as a topical anesthesia during local anesthetic infiltration in palatal area in pediatric patients. (2) To compare the efficacy of lignocaine spray and lignocaine gel in the same patient with bilateral injection. The study group consists of children in the age group of 6–12 years of both genders. Only those children who require palatal bilateral infiltration for their treatment, included in the study. A total of 120 children divided equally into 3 sub-groups depending on the amount of time gap between topical anesthetic application and local infiltration. (1) Group I–30 seconds (2) group II–1 minute (3) group III–3 minutes. Pain responses compared based on subject self-report using visual analogue scale to record subjective symptoms and sem (sound eye motor) scales to record objective symptoms. Results subjected to statistical analysis. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Gupte T, Modi UA, et al. Determination of Onset of Action and Efficacy of Topical Lignocaine Anesthesia in Children: An In Vivo Study. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2019;12(3):178–181.