Background:The mandibular foramen (MF) is an opening on the internal surface of the ramus for divisions of the mandibular vessels and nerve to pass. The aim of this study is to determine the position of the MF from various anatomical landmarks in several dry adult mandibles.Materials and Methods:A total of 102 human dry mandibles were examined, of which 93 were of dentulous and 9 were of edentulous. The measurements were taken from the anterior border of the ramus (coronoid notch) to the midportion of the MF and then from the midportion of the MF to the other landmarks such as internal oblique ridge, inferior border, sigmoid notch, and condyle were measured and recorded.Results:The data were compared using Student's t-test. The MF is positioned at a mean distance of 19 mm (with SD 2.34) from coronoid notch of the anterior border of the ramus. Superio-inferiorly from the condyle to the inferior border MF is situated 5 mm inferior to the midpoint of condyle to the inferior border distance (ramus height).Conclusion:We conclude that failures in the anesthesia of the inferior alveolar nerve are due to the operator error and not due to the anatomical variation.

Background:Inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB) is a technique of dental anesthesia, used to produce anesthesia of the mandibular teeth, gingivae of the mandible and lower lip. The conventional IANB is the most commonly used the nerve block technique for achieving local anesthesia for mandibular surgical procedures. In certain cases, however, this nerve block fails, even when performed by the most experienced clinician. Therefore, it would be advantageous to find an alternative simple technique.Aim and Objective:The objective of this study is to find an alternative inferior alveolar nerve block that has a higher success rate than other routine techniques. To this purpose, a simple painless inferior alveolar nerve block was designed to anesthetize the inferior alveolar nerve.Materials and Methods:This study was conducted in Oral surgery department of Vinayaka Mission's dental college Salem from May 2009 to May 2011. Five hundred patients between the age of 20 years and 65 years who required extraction of teeth in mandible were included in the study. Out of 500 patients 270 were males and 230 were females. The effectiveness of the IANB was evaluated by using a sharp dental explorer in the regions innervated by the inferior alveolar, lingual, and buccal nerves after 3, 5, and 7 min, respectively.Conclusion:This study concludes that inferior alveolar nerve block is an appropriate alternative nerve block to anesthetize inferior alveolar nerve due to its several advantages.

Faciomaxillary and oral surgical procedures are frequently done under local anesthesia. Only few techniques are used widely in these areas in spite of the numerous blocks available. Knowledge about these techniques could encourage use of these techniques for the benefit of patients and operators’ comfort. Leaving aside the commonly used intraoral anesthetic technique by faciomaxillary and dental surgeons, focus is given on regional blocks of extraoral route, like maxillary block, mandibular block, superficial cervical plexus block, forehead and scalp block, trigeminal nerve block, sphenopalatine nerve block, and they are discussed with their indications and technical details involved in administering them. Advantages of using the regional blocks over general anesthesia and multiple pricks include reduced dosage and number of needle pricks. Pediatric considerations like prolonged duration of anesthesia and wider area of action for regional blocks warrant that they should be used with caution.

Objective The aim of the study was to observe and compare the effects of dexamethasone on pain, swelling and trismus administered as one dose preoperatively sub mucosal (study group 2) versus intramuscular injection (study group 1) keeping control as those who received no dose of steroid in the management of third molar surgery. Materials and methods The group 2 (20 patients) is the study group in which all the patients had single dose of preoperative sub mucosal dexamethasone of 4 mg/2 ml. The group 1 patients (20 patients) received single dose of preoperative intra muscular dexamethasone of 4 mg/2 ml. The control group (20 patients) did not receive steroid in any form. The post operative pain, swelling and trismus were assessed for all the groups. Results The submucosal dexamethasone group showed marked improvement in the mouth opening in the follow ups than the intra muscular dexamethasone group. In those five cases of bilateral impaction, in study groups 1 and 2, the mouth opening was very much significant when sub mucosal dexamethasone was given. ConclusionThe pre operative use of submucosal dexamethasone effectively reduces the post operative pain, swelling and trismus showing statistically significant results. The number of post operative use of analgesic tablets taken by the patients in the study group 2 were less compared to the study group 1 and the control group showing clinically significant results.

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