Comparative Evaluation of Various Topical Anaesthetic Agents in Terms of Their Efficacy and Efficiency in Dentistry – AnIn VivoStudy

Abstract

Pain control is an integral part of modern dentistry. In paediatric dentistry, it forms an important part of child behaviour guidance and helps in positive acceptance of dentistry by the child patient. Needle injection of local anaesthetic is the commonest modality of pain control used today. However, it is a source of fear and anxiety in children. Hence, it is important to resort to a pain free method of administering local anaesthesia. Topical anaesthetics are a boon in this attempt. Hence, this study was designed to compare the efficiency of various topical anaesthetic agents in terms of onset and duration of anaesthesia and also to evaluate the efficacy of various topical anaesthetic agents in terms of pain response. A total of 90 operating sites were chosen from 30 subjects. A total of 15 subjects were selected in Stage 1, where onset and duration of action of the agents were evaluated, and in Stage 2, 75 operating sites were selected from another 15 subjects, where we measured the efficacy of each topical anaesthetic agent in terms of pain responses associated with intraoral injection using Faces Pain and Sound-Eye-Motor Scales. Flavoured benzocaine exhibited the fastest onset of action, followed by benzocaine, lignocaine and EMLA (eutectic mixture of local anaesthetics). The duration of action was maximum for EMLA, followed by lignocaine, flavoured benzocaine and benzocaine. The mean scores of pain responses were less with EMLA compared with benzocaine, flavoured benzocaine and lignocaine. EMLA proved to be superior in pain reduction than other topical anaesthetics agents.