Increase in volume of dental local anaesthetic solution while maintaining the tissue lidocaine and adrenaline concentration does not increase acute postoperative pain after gingivectomy.

A randomised, single-blind, within-patient, crossover study was done in 45 patients (29 women and 16 men, mean age 49 years, range 37-71) who had bilateral "identical" gingivectomies. On one occasion a standard volume of local anaesthetic containing 2% lidocaine and 1/80,000 adrenaline was infiltrated into the mucosal tissue before operation. On the other, double the standard volume with 1% lidocaine and 1/160,000 adrenaline was infiltrated. The intensity of postoperative pain was recorded by the patients on a 100 mm visual analogue scale every hour for an 11-hour observation period. The time courses and the sum of pain intensity after injection of the double and standard volumes did not differ significantly. Doubling the volume of local anaesthetic while maintaining the total lidocaine and adrenaline concentration that was infiltrated does not influence the intensity of acute pain after gingivectomy.