RESUMO
BACKGROUND: New methods have been introduced to facilitate dental procedures, but the administration of local anesthesia is still necessary to perform pain control during several dental procedures. AIM: To evaluate the effectiveness of the lidocaine Denti-patch® system versus the lidocaine topical anesthetic gel in children concerning pain reaction during injection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred 9-12-year-old cooperative children weighing more than 29 kg in need of bilateral dental treatment requiring maxillary and mandibular injection and not suffering from acute pain as a result of pulpits on the day of treatment were selected. The children were then divided into two groups: Group 1 comprising of 50 children in need of bilateral maxillary treatment and Group 2 compromising of 50 children requiring bilateral mandibular treatment. These groups were further subdivided into subgroups A and B; those receiving Denti-patch® on one side and lidocaine gel on the contralateral side, respectively. Pain or comfort was evaluated during injection using sound, eye, motor (SEM) scale (objective method) while, using faces pain rating scale (FPS) scale (subjective method) after injection by a trained assistant blinded to the procedure. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Comparison of the results was performed using Mann-Whitney U-test and Wilcoxon signed-ranks test for SEM and FPS score. RESULT: There was a statistically significant difference between the patch and the gel group for maxilla (P < 0.0001), as well as mandible (P = 0.01) with respect to SEM score given by the children. Similarly, with FPS scale, there was a statistically significant difference between the patch and the gel groups in both maxilla and mandible (P < 0.0001). However, there was no statistical difference between the patch Groups 1A and IIA or the gel Groups 1B and II B. CONCLUSION: The Denti-patch® system can significantly reduce the needle injection pain more than the gel.