A new horizon in needle-less anesthesia: Intranasal tetracaine/oxymetazoline spray for maxillary dental anesthesia - An overview

Abstract

Local anesthesia is routinely employed for different dental procedures ranging from simple tooth extraction to complex periodontal surgery in day to day dental practice. Although 2% lidocaine with epinephrine in the different ratio is the most commonly used injectable local anesthetic agent, different noninjectable techniques have also been tried. Intranasal 3% tetracaine/0.05% oxymetazoline spray is currently the Food and Drug Administration (USA) approved for performing single restoration in maxillary teeth up to the second premolar, though maximum success rate has been found with maxillary anterior. Different clinical trials were done to evaluate the efficacy and safety of this combination spray for the maxillary teeth anesthesia. Although this technique has some limitations like it cannot be used in patients weighing <88lb, it has some advantages too. This technique is very useful in needle-phobic patients and it also avoids the risk of needle stick injury. This article reviews the efficacy, safety, and clinical utility of this intranasal spray for the use in the dental procedure and also encourage further clinical trials and research for its safety in pediatric patients and efficacy in more invasive procedures.

Keywords

• needle-less anesthesia
• recent advancement in local anesthesia
• tetracaine/oxymetazoline intranasal spray