Computer-controlled local anaesthesia & paediatric patients: how to make your injections safe and effective

Local anaesthesia can often be unbearable for young patients and stressful for a dentist. A computer-controlled local anaesthesia system allows the delivery speed and pressure to be adjusted to the clinical situation, developmental, anatomical, and physiological tissue differences observed in children. Effective anaesthesia is achieved with a lower amount of analgesic reducing the risk of toxic or allergic reactions and minimizing discomfort and sensation of numbness after the treatment. It helps prevent unwanted self- injuries to the lips, cheeks, and tongue.

Today, local anesthesia is a safe and effective pain management method performed during all dental procedures, which allows the building of a positive patient-doctor relationship, particularly important with children and teenagers. Dealing with young patients, it is particularly important to avoid treatment-related pain and prevent the development of dentophobia.

Thanks to the use of special techniques and an appropriate approach, the injection can be painless and thus less stressful for a paediatric patient. Computer-controlled anesthesia presents a number of undisputed advantages:

• Greater child safety (physiological speed=maximum absorption=lower drug dose=reduced toxicity)
• Anesthesia is easier to perform and more effective: computer-controlled injection speed, adjusted to the type of injection and procedure (duration, depth)
• A lower drug dose and pressure are needed in children to achieve the anesthetic effect, which protects soft tissues, the surrounding bone, the periodontium and the primordia of permanent teeth
• Automatic aspiration boosts safety, precision, and predictability.
• PDL, intraseptal and intrapulpal anaesthesia, technically difficult to deliver with a traditional syringe, are much easier to perform in paediatric patients
• A wide selection of available techniques allows the anesthetic procedure to be adjusted to the individual case and clinical situation.

This dental webinar goes through the following digital anesthesia techniques and indications/contraindications in young patients (some tips &tricks):

• Periodontal ligament anaesthesia (PDL)
• Intraseptal anaesthesia
• Intrapulpal anaesthesia
• Palatal anaesthesia
• Infiltration anaesthesia
• Nerve block anaesthesia

Release date: 2020-10-15 | Expiration date: 2023-10-15