Journal of periodontology
-
Journal of periodontology · May 2003
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative Study Clinical TrialIntrapocket anesthesia for scaling and root planing in pain-sensitive patients.
In 2 previous multicenter studies evaluating the efficacy of a novel anesthetic gel (lidocaine 25 mg/g plus prilocaine 25 mg/g), there was a rather small, although statistically significant, overall difference between the active and placebo gels. There were, however, large center variations. At centers where the placebo-treated patients reported high pain scores, the difference between treatments was large, suggesting that the anesthetic gel is most effective in patients who experience the procedure as painful. The present multicenter, double-blind, randomized study evaluated the anesthetic effect of this gel in pain-sensitive patients by using a visual analog scale (VAS) and a verbal rating scale (VRS). ⋯ This study confirms the favorable anesthetic efficacy of active gel over placebo in selected pain-sensitive patients. It suggests that the gel may be a valuable alternative to conventional injection anesthesia.