A survey of local and topical anesthesia use by pediatric dentists in the United States.

Abstract

The findings of this study demonstrate that Pediatric Dentists are most commonly using Lidocaine as the preferred type of local anesthetic using 30 gauge short needle for infiltrations and 27 gauge short needle for blocks. Most were taking anywhere from 11-> 60 seconds to inject a cartridge. Topical anesthetic was used by most and the preferred brand was Hurricaine, however their perception of the effectiveness of topical anesthetics varied. There also appears to be a need to develop newer and better mode of topical anesthetic delivery system in the pediatric dental population.