A Comparison of the Traditional Injection and a New Anesthesia Technique (The Wand®) for Non-surgical Periodontal Therapy

Local anesthesia is one of the most frequently performed and important procedures in the daily practice of dentistry. Temporary anesthesia is a prerequisite to ensure painless treatment and is therefore important for the success of various dental therapeutic procedures. Furthermore, a comfortable and consistent local anesthesia can increase the level of trust between the patient and the operator, since the thought of an intraoral injection still causes considerably anxiety in many patients (Krochak et al, 1998). However, a failure can lead to increased stress. The use of local anesthesia dates back to William Stewart Halsted who achieved the first nerve block using cocaine (Spirling and Daniels, 2002). In order to achieve pain control for the treatment of maxillary teeth, infiltration anesthesia (cartridge syringe) is routinely used in everyday practice. The traditional method of administration of local anesthesia to the maxillary teeth is the supraperiosteal infiltration in the mucobuccal fold and the subsequent diffusion of the anesthetic solution through the porous maxillary bone, resulting in anesthesia of the corresponding radicular nerve fibers (Lipp, 1992). Although this approach is usually effective in achieving pulpal anesthesia and pain elimination, patients often feel uncomfortable when experiencing this method of injection. Possible side effects such as collateral anesthesia of the face, lips and muscles of facial expression, resulting in facial numbness, can occur. Moreover, if the smile line becomes distorted, it can be temporarily invalidated as an esthetic reference for restorative and prosthetic dentistry. Furthermore, several injections are necessary for extensive treatment of multiple maxillary teeth. A computer-assisted local anesthetic delivery system (The Wand®; Milestone Scientific, Livingston, NJ, USA; Fig. 1) has recently been introduced, A Comparison of the Traditional Injection and a New Anesthesia Technique (The Wand®) for Non-surgical Periodontal Therapy