ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The authors of this systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the effect of different anesthetics on the efficacy of inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB) in patients with irreversible pulpitis. TYPES OF STUDIES REVIEWED: The authors conducted a search of MEDLINE databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature, and Brazilian Library of Dentistry). There was no restriction on publication year or idiom. The gray literature was also explored. The authors included only randomized clinical trials that compared different anesthetics in the efficacy of IANB in patients with irreversible pulpitis. The risk of bias was evaluated by using the Cochrane Collaboration's tool. A random-effects Bayesian mixed treatment comparison model was used to compare different anesthetic solutions in randomized clinical trials with low or unclear risk of bias. Heterogeneity was assessed by using Cochran Q test and I2 statistics. Quality of evidence was assessed by using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach. RESULTS: A total of 7,981 studies were identified; only 16 met the eligibility criteria, and they were all meta-analyzed. A significant difference was observed in the pair lidocaine versus articaine, with higher success with articaine (risk ratio, 0.76; 95% confidence interval, 0.63 to 0.88) in the mixed treatment comparison analysis, as this comparison was graded as high-quality evidence. The probability of success for each treatment was 73% for articaine, 57% for prilocaine, 55% for mepivacaine, 53% for bupivacaine, and 12% for lidocaine. This ranking was considered high quality of evidence. CONCLUSIONS AND PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The use of articaine can increase the IANB success rate in patients with irreversible pulpitis. Among the anesthetic solutions, lidocaine was the least effective.
