The time used to administer local anesthesia to 5 and 6 year olds

Pediatric dentistry and local anesthesia textbooks recommend injecting the local anesthetic during dental anesthesia and the rate of 1 ml per min. On the other hand, there are indications that, in practice, most dentists inject the anesthetic considerably faster. There has been no study indicating an ideal rate. Fourteen 5 and 6 year olds received treatment of two operative appointments and the injections were videotaped. All injections were administered by the same dentist, who did not know that the injections would be timed. There was an equal number of maxillary infiltrations and mandibular blocks. Each child received the same type of injection in both appointments. In all cases 1.8 ml of anesthetic were administered and provided anesthetic effect for the operative procedures. Two pediatric dentists rated the behavior of the children during the injection. The injections were timed from tissue piercing until withdrawal of the needle and the times ranged between 36 seconds and 161 seconds (2 minutes 41 seconds) with an average of 80.67 seconds (SD:34.84). This average is about 2/3 the time recommended to administer 1.8 ml. No statistically significant correlation was found between the time it took to administer the local anesthetic and the behavior of the children, or between the time and whether the children saw the needle prior to anesthesia administrator. The data presented no evidence to suggest that varying the time it takes to administer one capsule of anesthetic between 36 and 161 seconds affects the behavior of the children of the success of the anesthesia.