Local anesthetics: a century of progress

One century after the clinical introduction of cocaine, local anesthesia remains the most important method of pain control in dentistry. Many local anesthetics have been marketed since 1884, and it is likely that attempts to produce drugs that enhance anesthetic efficacy, reduce systemic and local toxicity, and increase nociceptive selectivity, will continue. In addition, new methods of drug administration have been and will be developed to achieve these goals. Of fundamental importance to such improvements are investigations into the pharmacology of drugs with local anesthetic activity and anatomical and physiologic studies pertaining to the reasons why local anesthetics sometimes fail to achieve desired results. This paper reviews recent advances in our understanding of these drugs and their clinical use.