THE USE OF PATIENT-CONTROLLED TRANSCUTANEOUS ELECTRONIC NERVE-STIMULATION (TENS) TO DECREASE THE DISCOMFORT OF REGIONAL ANESTHESIA IN DENTISTRY - RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED CLINICAL-TRIAL

Objective: To compare the use of topical anaesthesia and transcutaneou s electronic nerve stimulation (TENS) as means of reducing the discomf ort of inferior dental block injections. Methods: One hundred adult de ntal patients received 2% lignocaine with 1:80000 adrenaline for long buccal and inferior dental block anaesthesia. The long buccal injectio ns were given first with no prior mucosal preparation. Patients receiv ed inferior dental blocks after one of the following mucosal preparati ons: (1) no pretreatment: (2) a 2 min application of 20% benzocaine to pical anaesthetic; (3) application of patient-controlled TENS at the i njection site. Patients scored injection discomfort after each adminis tration on a 100 mm visual analogue scale. Results: The discomfort of the long buccal injection did not differ between the three groups of p atients (F-2.97 = 1.0) There were significant differences in the pain scores for the inferior dental block injections (F-2.97 = 5.3; P < 0.0 1). Injection discomfort following TENS was less than that following n o pretreatment (p < 0.01) and after topical anaesthetic application (p < 0.05). The use of topical anaesthesia did not produce a significant change in injection discomfort compared with no pretreatment. Conclus ion: The use of TENS reduces injection discomfort during inferior dent al block anaesthesia. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserv ed.