Comparison of Local Ice Packs with Local Anaesthetics for Decreasing the Pain of Injection during a Dental Procedure

Aim: To evaluate the efficacy of different possible and non-pharmacological techniques in eliminating the discomfort of local anaesthesia injection during dental procedures.

Introduction: Dental anxiety and fear of needles are one of the most common problems seen by dental practitioners; several methods are currently used to lower the discomfort of local anaesthesia injection during dental procedures. The desensitization of injection sites is one of the recommended strategies. Among chemical anaesthetic topical agents that are effective but might have allergic side effects, using some non-pharmacological and safe techniques might be useful.

Materials and Methods: Randomly chosen patients receiving LA underwent pre-injection intervention that included heat, cold and pressure. This was compared with a control of no pre-injection intervention. Pain score in ice and LA spray pre-injection intervention. It clearly shows that the pain levels in the LA spray technique are higher than those in the Ice technique.

Results: Comparing the pain score of ice as a pre-injection intervention between males and females it was found that males have lower pain scores than females.

Conclusion: This study shows a significant advantage of the non-pharmacological method over the pharmacological method. Hence further research could help standardize ice application pre-injection for a more nontoxic and natural method of reducing pain during an LA injection. It can also prove beneficial when LA does not work due to an acidic environment.