Dental Anesthesia

Dental anesthesia is the application of anesthesia to dentistry, covering local anesthetics given to a specific area of the mouth, sedation to relax the patient, and general anesthesia for complete unconsciousness. Local anesthetic drugs control pain during a procedure and are usually injected into a targeted area rather than given systemically; lidocaine is the most widely used dental local anesthetic, with a half life of about one and a half to two hours, alongside articaine, bupivacaine, prilocaine and mepivacaine. Which drug and how much of it is used depends on the procedure, the amount of tissue inflammation present, the injection technique and the risk of side effects, with more involved work such as root canal treatment needing a larger dose than simple restorative work.