Pharmacology of dental local anaesthesia

Abstract

Abstract Local anaesthesia is defined as a loss of sensation in a circumscribed area of the body by a depression of excitation in nerve endings or an inhibition of the conduction process in peripheral nerves. The term ‘anaesthesia’ denotes absence of all sensation including touch, temperature, pressure, and pain. In clinical practice it is a localized loss of pain sensation that is desired. The correct term for a localized loss of pain is ‘local analgesia’. The expressions ‘local anaesthesia’ and ‘local analgesia’ are used almost synonymously in dentistry. In this book the former term will be used throughout.