The role of local anaesthesia in intra-operative pain management in dental practice

Abstract

Intra-operative pain management with the means of local anaesthesia is an important of dental practice. Local anaesthetics are drugs the most commonly used drugs in dentistry, being, at the same time, the safest and most effective pain preventing and pain relieving agents known to medicine.The mechanism of action of local anaesthetics involves interruption of the conduction of nerve impulses. These agents show high affinity for the voltage-dependent sodium channels (Nav), they block them, thus preventing the influx of sodium cations through the membranes of the neuron. The potential threshold is not reached and the potential itself is not present. The potency of local anaesthetic drugs depends primarily on the concentration of the solutions used, while possible side effects depend on the dose. In this paper the characteristics of local anaesthetics used in dental practice were presented as well as characteristics of vasoconstrictors added to anaesthetic solutions. The historical outline, the mechanism of action of local anaesthetics and the currently used both basic and additional methods of anaesthesia are discussed. Possible strategies for improving the effectiveness of anaesthesia by the means of physical and chemical methods were explained. General and local adverse reactions of dental anaesthetics were also discussed, along with ways to prevent and treat them.