Updates in articaine use in dentistry

Abstract

Introduction: Most dental procedures require local anesthesia. Today, a variety of commercially available anesthetics are used in dental practice. One of the reasons science is constantly striving to improve these chemicals in terms of their effectiveness and safety is that an ideal local anesthetic has yet to be discovered. Articaine 4% solution is one of the newer amide anesthetics with an ester bond. Its popularity among dentists is growing rapidly, despite the fact that its the effectiveness and safety in comparison to other anesthetics is still unproven according to some authors. The aim of this paper is to summarize the current knowledge about articaine and to compare its potency, efficacy, and safety in use. Material and method: Existing works were researched using PubMed as our main source, as well as Web of Science and Google Scholar. We used the following keywords to search for the effectiveness and potency of articaine: "articaine and (comparative or compare or efficacy or potency)"; this yielded 145 results from papers published in the last 5 years. For the safety analysis, keywords were: "articaine and (safety or safe or toxic or toxicity or paresthesia or dysesthesia)", and 75 results were found from publications in the last 10 years. Our research also includes clinical trials and reviews from Google Scholar that do not have specific keywords and time frames. Results: The efficacy and safety of using 4% articaine are satisfactory, according to the summarized information from the existing literature. In comparison to other local anesthetics, articaine is a superior anesthetic. Its metabolic and pharmacokinetic properties improve performance in terms of anesthesia effectiveness, and duration, which is especially important in elderly and medically compromised patients. Conclusion: Articaine is widely used in surgical and non-surgical dental procedures, as well as in dental surgery, and its use has been extensively researched. Every clinician is free to use articaine or another local anesthetic, based on their own personal preference and experiences, as well as the most recent updates on articaine safety, potency and efficacy presented in this review.