Effectiveness of Ibuprofen Administration on the Depth of Anesthesia in Inflamed Teeth

Incomplete anesthesia of inflamed teeth is a well known clinical occurrence and the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Ibuprofen as a premedication in improving the quality of anesthesia in patients with inflamed teeth pulps.

Forty patients with the diagnosis of irreversible pulpitis in one mandibular tooth were selected. Two other teeth in the same quadrant were selected as controls. Electric pulp tester (EPT) was used in this study to evaluate the quality of anesthesia. The subjects were divided into two groups randomly, and after recording of pulp tester response in each group, one of the two drugs ibuprofen or placebo was administered 1 hour prior to anesthesia injection. After injection, EPT measurement was recorded. The reversed EPT scale was used for evaluation of the depth of anesthesia.

Data was analyzed to statistically compare the results before and after anesthesia and drug administration in cases and control group .Significantly lower TSLs were observed in the ibuprofen group (Pvalue= 0.001).

This study concluded that preoperative administration of ibuprofen (if not contraindicated) 1 hour before local anesthesia injection is an effective method for achieving deep anesthesia during RCT of teeth with irreversible pulpitis.