Muhammad Nabeel, Alia Ahmed, Maria Sikander.
A comparison of the anesthetic efficacy of lidocaine and articaine for buccal infiltration in patients with acute irreversible pulpitis in maxillary first premolars.
Pak Oral Dental J Jan ;34(4):714-6.

Articaine is fast becoming the anesthesia of choice for many endodontists across the globe. Before it completely replaces the” gold standard” lidocaine its anesthetic efficacy for dental use must be determined accurately. The objective of this study was to compare the anesthetic efficacy of articaine with lidocaine for buccal infiltration in patients with acute irreversible pulpitis. Seventy-six patients with acute irreversible pulpitis of maxillary first premolar were randomly selected. Patients receiving 1.7 ml of 2% lidocaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine injection (group 1) and those receiving 1.7 ml of 4% articaine wtih 1:100,0000 (group 2) were asked to rate their pain level on visual analogue scale (VAS) before receiving the anesthesia. Success was defined as mild or no pain on endodontic access or initial instrumentation based on the readings of visual analogue scale. Statistically no significant difference in the anesthetic efficacy of articaine and lidocaine as buccal infiltration agents was found. Hence, articaine hydrochloride has comparable anesthetic efficacy to that of lidocaine.

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