Anesthesia and pain management

Acute orofacial pain is usually managed by the administration of local anesthetics, systemic analgesics, or a combination of the two methods. In an emergency, intraoral maxillary nerve blockade is helpful for controlling pain in the midface, although infiltrations may be more suitable for discomfort originating from individual teeth or portions of the alveolar process. Mandibular anesthesia can be achieved by open or closed-mouth techniques for inferioral alveolar-lingual nerve blockade. Systemic pain relief is optimized by using full analgesic doses of NSAIDs, with opioids serving to increase the degree of analgesia if required, or to be used, often with acetaminophen, in patients intolerant to NSAIDs.