Case report: management of broken dental needles in practice

Breakage of a dental needle is a rare but significant complication of local anaesthetic injections, which causes great anxiety for the patient and dental surgeon, and necessitates investigations and further treatment. It may have important medico-legal considerations. We describe a case where a dental needle broke during the routine administration of an inferior alveolar nerve block for a dental procedure. This broken needle subsequently migrated to the lateral aspect of the neck, confirming that these 'migrations' do occur. We discuss the various causes, and clinical and dentolegal implications, as well as methods of treatment.