Is articaine better for infiltrations?

By Laird Harrison, Senior Editor -Dr. Bicuspid — Articaine worked better than competing anesthetics in seven out of 10 randomized clinical trials of infiltration analyzed for a review presented at the recent American Association for Dental Research (AADR) meeting in Washington, DC. But articaine and lidocaine appeared very similar in potency in this research, and a clinical study presented at the same session found lidocaine as good — almost.

We have a number of solutions to choose from, and, for me, that’s a daunting task,” said Ryan Brandt, D.D.S., a University of Michigan endodontic resident. He said he’d found recommendations from some of dentistry’s leading luminaries, but “these opinions don’t necessarily agree with the evidence.” On the other hand, lidocaine is still the most used for infiltrations in the U.S., he said.


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