Clinical and Histological Comparison of Pulp Anaesthesia and Local Diffusion after Periodontal Ligament Injection and Intrapapillary Infiltration Anaesthesia

Background: Periodontal ligament injection (PDL) is used to achieve single tooth pulp anaesthesia; infiltrative, non-osseous intrapapillary anaesthesia (IPA) may be an alternative with a minor complication rate. Therefore, the aim of the study was an evaluation and comparison of PDL and IPA techniques via clinical human and animal histological methods. Methods: For clinical evaluation, 30 healthy volunteers were injected with both techniques in a split mouth design with 2 mandibular premolars on each side. Pain of injection (VAS) as well as an electric pulp testing via pulp vitality scanner was performed. Length of anaesthesia was measured. Two male sheep were injected with coloured anaesthetic solution in a split mouth design with 3 teeth on each side. Macroscopic surfaces of the non-decalcified bone parts, microscopic evaluation of the non-decalcified bone parts and histological sections with decalcified cut surfaces were examined. Results: Human clinical examinations could show no significant difference in injection pain; though, PDL resulted in a more profound and longer pulp anaesthesia (both p<0.0001) than IPA in all cases. In animal histological examinations, the local spread of anaesthetic agent into surrounding bone after PDL could be shown. In contrast, for IPA, mainly soft tissue diffusion was seen. Conclusion: According to clinical and histological data, profound bone diffusion – as to be seen in PDL seems to be the essential factor for successful single tooth pulp anaesthesia. *Corresponding author: Peer W. Kämmerer MD, DMD Assistant Professor, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Medical Centre Mainz, Augustusplatz 2, 55131 Mainz, Germany, Tel: 00496131-175086; Fax: 06131/176602; E-mail: [email protected] Received April 10, 2012; Accepted June 11, 2012; Published June 18, 2012 Citation: Kämmerer PW, Palarie V, Schiegnitz E, Ziebart T, Al-Nawas B, et al. (2012) Clinical and Histological Comparison of Pulp Anaesthesia and Local Diffusion after Periodontal Ligament Injection and Intrapapillary Infiltration Anaesthesia. J Pain Relief 1:108. doi:10.4172/2167-0846.1000108 Copyright: © 2012 Kämmerer PW, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.