Effectiveness of mandibular infiltration compared with mandibular block technique in second primary molar pulpotomy

Pain control is very important in all dental procedures. Facing experience in childhood results in one’s panic from dental treatments in older age. Inferior alveolar nerve block is common for primary mandibular molars. This technique involves some disadvantages, especially in pediatric dentistry. The most important items are: 1) more stress in both child patients and the dentist 2) causes negative reactions in children behaviour 3) longtime anesthesia might make the child to bite his/her tongue and lips. Regarding to these problems, the researchers have looked for a reliable alternative for the above injection technique for example, infiltration. In this research, the effectiveness of mandibular infiltration was compared with mandibular block technique in pulpotomy of mandibular second primary molar in 5-8 years old children. Methods & Materials: In a controlled randomized clinical trial done in a single blind way, thirty 5-8 years old cooperative children which required second primary molar pulpotomy in both sides were selected. Anesthetic drug was Lidocaine 2% with Epinephrine one part in one hundred thousands in both cases. Eye movement, hand and body movement, oral complaints and crying of the child (SEM scale) were observed and recorded. Fischer’s exact test and McNemar analysis were used for statistical analysis. SEM scale (sound, eyes, motor) was used for pain comparison between block and infiltration technique. More number of children exhibited eye movements (P value = 0.3), body movements (P value = 0.21), oral complaints (P value = 0.21) and crying (P value = 0.23) in infiltration side. But there was no significant differences between two techniques. Results show that infiltration can be used, it is very simple, easy and safe in order to anesthetize second mandibular primary molars. According to the results of this study the success rate for infiltration is 80%.