📖 Topical Anaesthetics in Dentistry. How effective are they?.

Is pain-free needle insertion possible? The most widely advocated technique in Dentistry is the use of topical anaesthetics before intra-oral needle insertion. Eutectic Mixture of Local Anaesthetics (EMLA) introduced to reduce the pain associated with venous cannulation and providing surface anaesthetic effect for harvesting skin grafts, was compared with commonly available topical anaesthetics: Lignocaine 2%, Benzocaine 20% and Placebo.The effectiveness was recorded by using Visual analogue scale (VAS),Lickerts’ scale and Sound,Eye,Motor(SEM) scale. It was concluded that Eutectic Mixture of Local Anaesthetics (EMLA) showed the maximum reduction in pain. Hence, EMLA eliminates the pain of intra oral needle insertion as it has a greater depth of penetration,other advantages being rapid penetration of skin and mucosa, effective diffusion through the Keratinized tissue and plasma concentration remaining within safe levels justifies its use as a topical anaesthetic in dentistry especially pediatric dentistry.