Clinical evaluation of cell demodulated targeted electronic anesthesia

Electronic anesthesia is an effective adjunct for the management of dental pain, and has been used in medicine and dentistry for several decades. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of dental electroni c anesthesia while preparing teeth for large restorations and full crown co verage. The single-blind study involved the use of two identical units (Ced eta Mk(3)). One was a fully operational, commercially available unit (activ e unit), while the other had been modified to prevent current from reaching the electrodes (control unit). Both the non-working control device and the active unit had a normally functioning indicator light that glowed when th e unit was turned on. The study participants consisted of 100 patients sele cted from the roster at New York University College of Dentistry. Subjects were selected if (1) their prescribed treatment plans required large class I, II, III, IV, or V restorations or full coverage crowns, (2) they had pre vious treatment performed with the use of an injectable local anesthetic, a nd (3) their medical history showed a lack of medical contraindications. Th e active unit group had 31 subjects with large restorations required, 5 pat ients needing inlay/onlay preparations and 14 subjects requiring full cover age. The control unit group had 43 subjects needing large operative restora tions, 1 onlay and 6 subjects needing full coverage. Each subject was infor med that he/she would be able to eliminate the pain from the dental procedu re by maintaining control of the electronic dental anesthesia unit (reachin g a therapeutic level). If unmanageable discomfort occurred, intraligamento us local anesthesia would be administered. Two of the 50 subjects who recei ved the control device were able to tolerate the dental procedure, the rest were given the rescue anesthetic upon request. Forty-three of the 50 subje cts who received the active unit responded with an excellent or very good e valuation for pain control, with no rescue anesthetic required. Seventy-fou r dental procedures were performed on the 50 subjects who received the acti ve unit. Forty-live of the subjects in the active unit group said they woul d prefer to have electronic anesthesia for their next dental treatment, rat her than the novocaine they had previously experienced. Forty-eight of the subjects in the central unit group said that they would prefer the traditio nal novocaine injection for their next dental treatment.