When patients need to have a dental injection for a dental procedure to be carried out, the patients are usually worried about the pain involved with the local anaesthetic injection.
There are however some extra things that can be done to reduce the pain of dental injections and on most occasions it’s a case that unless the patient specifically requests these extra things, the dentist may simply give the local anaesthetic dental injection as per routine, without any of the extra procedures being carried out.
What Can Be Requested by Patients at Pearl Dental Clinic to Reduce The Pain of Dental Injections?
- The patient could ask the dentist to use topical local anaesthetic numbing gel to numb the superficial gum in the region of the dental injection administration site to reduce the pain of dental injection penetration. Numbing gel can’t be used alone by itself to numb teeth but it can reduce the pain of dental injections.
- The patient could request to have his/her dental injection delivered using a computerised delivery system such as the Wand which can reduce the pain of dental injections by slowly delivering the local anaesthetic and minimising tissue expansion and pain. The use of the Wand is FREE at Pearl Dental Clinic.
- There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that some local anaesthetics hurt patients less than others. For example some dentists suggest that using Citanest which is an amide-type local anaesthetic agent causes less pain than the standard Lignocaine with adrenaline local anaesthetic that is usually used. Unfortunately as Citanest does not contain adrenaline, it also wears off more quickly which means that it may be acceptable for short procedures but not for more complex longer dental procedures.
- For more nervous patients, Intra-venous Sedation or inhalation sedation could be used to first relax the patient and then the dental injection can be used to deliver the local anaesthetic to the region needed. Intra-venous sedation is also called conscious sedation because unlike general anaesthesia it does not cause patients to stop breathing by themselves but it does significantly relax patients and allows the dental injection to be delivered to the patient either asleep or at least whilst sedated. IV Sedation is perhaps the most effective method of reducing the pain of dental injections. By having IV sedation it does not mean that local anaesthetic injection is no longer necessary and in fact local anaesthetic dental injection still has to be given even when patients are sedated.
Pearl Dental Clinic is open 7 days a week from 9am to 10pm. You can book an appointment by calling us on 0208 547 9997 or emailing us or by booking an appointment online (24 hours).