Comparison of the efficacy of lidocaine patch and benzocaine gel reducing injection pain in children

ABSTRACT

The most important aspect of behavior management in children is pain. control. The most recent topical material used for reducing injection pain is Dentipatch. No study has been performed on the efficacy of this material in Iran. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of Dentipatch with 20% Benzocain gel. For this clinical trial study, sixty children in need of bilateral posterior infiltration of maxillary buccal mucosa were selected. All children completed the General and Dental Anxiety Scale tests, and then received bilateral buccal infiltration either following 10 minutes application of Dentipatch or 2 minutes application of Benzocaine gel. For measuring pain, children were asked to complete a Visual Analogue Scale [VAS] after each injection, and to report which injection was more painful. The tests were performed by two trained observers. For comparison of pain reduction, the data were statistically analyzed using Paired t.test and Wilcoxan Sign Rank test. According to VAS, in children without dental anxiety, the scores of the gel and patch were 66.85 and 29.92 respectively p < 0.001. The dental anxious children reports were 70.85 for the gel and 25.91 for the patch [p < 0.001]. According to child's report, in children without dental anxiety, the gel score was 2.31 and the patch score was 0.54, whereas in dental anxious children the scores changed to 2.81 and 0.66 with a statistically significant difference [p < 0.001]. The effect of Dentipatch in reducing pain was more pronounced than Benzocaine gel. Further investigations are necessary in order to decrease the Dentipatch application time