BOSTON - In a poster presented at the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) 2015 General Session, a group from Italy showed how a new computer-controlled local anesthesia delivery system resulted in low patient pain ratings during injection procedures.
In addition, patients were willing to pay an additional fee for painless anesthesia, the researchers found.
Dino Re and colleagues in the department of oral rehabilitation at the University of Milan aimed to evaluate the sensation of pain and discomfort using a new computer-controlled local anesthesia delivery system.
The researchers recruited 30 adult patients who were in good health, involved in dental restorative procedures, and treated in the past with a conventional anesthesia infiltration technique. For all subjects, a computerized injection technique (Wand single tooth anesthesia [STA] injection system, Milestone Scientific) was used before clinical procedures on teeth with vital pulp. After injections were administered, the researchers recorded the sensation of pain experienced by patients, and then assessed their willingness to pay extra for the technology using a questionnaire.
Patients reported low discomfort with the device, and the researchers found a statistically significant difference for pain scores between male and female patients. More than half of the subjects were willing to pay an additional fee for painless anesthesia.
