Efficacy of a computerized local anesthesia device in pediatric dentistry.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a computerized anesthesia delivery system in reducing pain during injections when compared with a traditional delivery system (i.e., syringe). METHODS Subjects consisted of 57 patients between the ages of 5 and 13 needing operative dentistry using local anesthesia. Patients were randomly assigned to either the computerized or traditional anesthesia delivery system. Inferior alveolar block injections, palatal, and buccal infiltrations were the only injections administered throughout this study. Pain behavior was videotaped and coded throughout the study. Pain perceptions were rated using a 10 point visual analogue rating scale. Subjects were also asked to rate their overall satisfaction and approval of the dentist and the treatment received. RESULTS Results of multivariate analysis of variance indicated that there were no significant differences between the computerized and the traditional method of administering local anesthesia when comparing pain ratings and pain behavior. Average pain ratings for the computerized method were 4.5 while the average ratings for the traditional method were 3.6. In addition, all subjects reported overall satisfaction with their dental treatment and that they would be willing to return in the future. CONCLUSIONS A computerized anesthesia injection method was found to be comparable to the traditional method of anesthesia injection.