Have Dental Anxiety? Learning the Basics About Anesthesia Will Help You Be Stress Free

It’s been over one-hundred years since local anesthesia was first introduced within the dental setting. Even better news is that today’s dentists have more options than ever, allowing them to ensure safety and comfort like never before for their patients. Furthermore, local anesthesia is widely used among dental professionals, and that is why they are well-trained to manage adverse reactions to anesthesia they provide in an emergency.

The main purpose of using local anesthesia in dentistry is to reduce discomfort and address varying levels of patient anxiety typically associated with dental procedures. Local anesthesia is applied in one of three ways: topical, injectable, and non-injectable.

Topical anesthetics are applied by swabbing special gel on the skin or inside the mouth to relieve pain after an injection or a procedure. The gel or patch consistently releases topical solutions into the soft tissues to reduce discomfort. It desensitizes the mucous membrane at the site of injection, but it does not anesthetize the deep gingiva, the tooth or the bone structure.

Injectable anesthetics make use of a syringe and needle to administer a desensitizing solution that will numb the affected surrounding area. The anesthetics help block pain signals from being sent to the brain. The type (and amount) of anesthetic is determined by the dental problem itself, the patient’s weight, his or her medical history, and any other drugs present in the patient’s system that they may take on a regular prescribed basis.

Non-injectable anesthetics are part of the new wave of pain management that is minimally invasive, but effective enough to deliver a measured amount of anesthesia to make deep cleanings or scaling and root planning procedures more comfortable. The anesthetic is delivered by using a blunt-tipped applicator that contains fast-acting topical anesthetic, and is directly applied along the affected periodontal pockets. 

With the presence of these three types of local anesthesia available to dentists today (plus the introduction of new products all the time), modern dentistry practitioners are able to offer their patients the most comfortable experience for whatever procedure they need to have done.