Articaine - a safe and efficacious local anaesthetic for all routine dental procedures: Study

The results of the study are as follows:

· Articaine had a higher likelihood of achieving anaesthetic success than lidocaine overall and in all subgroup analyses with varying degrees of significance.

· Overall articaine had 2.17 times the likelihood of anaesthetic success of lidocaine.

· For mandibular blocks articaine had 1.5 times the likelihood of anaesthetic success of lidocaine.

· For all infiltrations, maxillary and mandibular articaine had 2.78 times the likelihood of anaesthetic success of lidocaine.

· None of the studies reported any major local anaesthetic-related adverse effects as a result of the interventions.

Thus, the researchers concluded that Articaine is a safe and efficacious local anaesthetic for all routine dental procedures in patients of all ages, and more likely to achieve successful anaesthesia than lidocaine in routine dental treatment. Neither anaesthetic has a higher association with anaesthetic-related adverse effects.

Reference:

Articaine in dentistry: an overview of the evidence and meta-analysis of the latest randomised controlled trials on articaine safety and efficacy compared to lidocaine for routine dental treatment by Martin E et. al published in the BDJ Open.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41405-021-00082-5