Microneedles may effectively deliver local anaesthesia in dental procedures: Study

Pain management during dental procedures is a cornerstone for successful daily practice. In current practice, the traditional needle and syringe injection are used to administer local anaesthesia. Perhaps the most common tool for dental pain management is a 2% lidocaine hydrochloride (HCl) solution with 1:100,000 epinephrine. A cartridge with up to 1.8 ml of 2% lidocaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine provides the duration of approximately 60 to 90 minutes when using an injection block technique for pulpal anaesthesia. Any cartridge may contain 1.8 ml of solution, but the average volume is 1.76 ml and recommendations to calculate dosage should err on the higher volume for safety purposes.

However, the appearance of long needles and the pain associated with it often leads to dental anxiety deterring timely interventions. Microneedles (MNs) has emerged as a minimally invasive alternative to hypodermic needles and shown to be effective in transdermal drug delivery applications.

A study was conducted by a team of researchers to examine the potential use of Microneedles (MNs) for local anaesthesia delivery in dentistry.

The researchers found that:

• The development of a novel conductive Microneedles (MNs) array that can be used in combination with iontophoresis technique to achieve drug penetration through the oral mucosa and the underlying bone tissue is presented.
• The conductive Microneedles (MNs) array plays a dual role, creating micro-conduits and lowering the resistance of the oral mucosa.
• The reduced tissue resistance further enhances the application of a low-voltage current that can direct and accelerate the drug molecules to target the sensory nerves supplying teeth.

Thus, the researchers concluded that the successful delivery of lidocaine using this new strategy in a clinically relevant rabbit incisor model is shown to be as effective as the current gold standard.

Reference:

A study titled, "Targeted Delivery of Anesthetic Agents to Bone Tissues using Conductive Microneedles Enhanced Iontophoresis for Painless Dental Anesthesia" by Razina Z. Seeni published in the Advanced Functional Materials

https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202105686