Cryoanesthesia with ethyl chloride spray versus 5% lidocaine gel in alleviating oral local anesthetic injection pain for buccal anaesthesia: A randomized clinical (controlled) trial

Numbing the area of oral mucosa with cold application prior to administration of regional anesthesia has been widely used by various dentists in alleviating pain caused by needle prick. Cryoanesthesia using Endo-ice as topical anesthesia has been studied as a replacement to prevail the fallibility of topical anaesthetics. This study aimed to evaluate and compare effectiveness of ethyl chloride spray with 5% lidocaine gel in alleviating buccal anesthesia injection pain.

Total of 90 outpatients were randomly divided into 3 groups as follows: Group 1 – cryotherapy with ethyl chloride at the anesthetic site preceding before administration of local anesthesia; Group 2 – topical application of 5% LIDOCAINE GEL preceding before administration of local anesthesia; and group 3 – control that did not receive any topical agent preceding before administration of local anesthesia. Visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to document pain immediately after injection prick.

About comparison of pain scores, significant difference was found between group 1 (ethyl chloride) and group 2 (topical lidocaine) patients (P=0.001). For group 1, about 15 (50%) patients suffered from mild pain, followed by 14 (46.67%) patients suffering from moderate pain. However, majority of the 21 (70%) patients in group 2 suffered from moderate pain. All the patients in group 3 suffered from severe pain.

Importance of alleviating fear of needle injection phobia amongst patients is of paramount importance. Ethyl chloride was found to be more effective than topical lidocaine in alleviating needle injection pain before administration of local anesthetic injection.