Taking the Pain Out of Dental Injections
A new system to reduce the pain of the anaesthetic injection given by dentists to patients has won a health award. John Meechan, a senior lecturer at Newcastle University, told Radio Four's Today program that it's not the needle going in which causes the stinging sensation that makes the prospect of having dental work done so frightening for many patients. Dr Meechan stressed that the needle causes very little pain and can be masked quite easily with surface anaesthetic – rubbing cream on your gum.It is the acidity of the anaesthetic in the syringe itself which causes the stinging sensation when it enters the tissues.
And, surprisingly, the solution is acidic purely for storage reasons – the anaesthetic solution loses its effectiveness if stored in a non-acidic environment. Dr Meechan and his colleagues claim to have reduced the pain by developing a syringe which adds a neutralising solution to the anaesthetic just before it is injected into the patient's mouth.
The concept is not a new one but the award has been granted because the researchers at Newcastle have come up with a way of putting the anaesthetic and the neutralising solution in one syringe – other systems have been more cumbersome.The Newcastle research team is hopeful that the invention will be mass-produced soon.