Electronic Dental Anaesthesia for third inferior molar surgery.

Summary Aim. Study on Electronic Dental Anaesthesia (EDA) for third molar surgery. Methods. Third molar extraction under regional anaesthesia (inferior alveolar and buccal nerve blocks), two groups of 30 patients each, group 1 = control, group 2 = EDA treatment. Anxiety and pain level were reported by means of Visual Analogue Scale, postoperative pain description with the McGill Pain Questionnaire. Postoperative telephonic interview to all patients. Computerized randomization, values expressed as mean±SD, data comparison evaluated by means of ANOVA and χ2, statistical significance indicated by P values < 0.05. Results. Features of the patients and surgical interventions were similar. EDA has determined lower pain level, moreover patients in the control group showed higher values of blood pressure and heart frequency. Telephonic interview not reported amnesia of the perioperative events. A smaller number of EDA treated patients reported pain during needle prick and /or intraoperatively. 80% of the EDA treated patients liked the treatment and 93% of the patients would repeat the treatment, if needed. Conclusions. EDA is a complementary analgesic technique for dental surgery. Cardiovascular changes, frequently observed during third molar extraction, were not present in the EDA treated patients. This confirms that EDA is able to modify the physiologic responses to stressful events, blunting the adrenergic upset, maybe by means of an analgesic action on Aβ fiber and an increase of endorphins central level. These results underline that the complementary use of EDA in the third molar extraction may be better than sole regional anaesthesia.