Local Anesthetics: Dentistry’s Most Important Drugs, Clinical Update 2006

Abstract

Local anesthetics are the safest most effective drugs in medicine for the control and management of pain. They also represent the most important drugs in dentistry. Today, dentistry has a spectrum of local anesthetics that permit pain control to be tailored to the specific needs of the patient: short-, intermediate-, and long-acting drugs. Bupivacaine has become a standard part of the armamentarium for postsurgical pain control while articaine has become the second-most used local anesthetic in the United States since its introduction in 2000. Despite an increase in anecdotal reports of paresthesia since articaine's introduction there is yet, no supporting scientific evidence.