• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.85-98
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• 1991

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of low - power laser used in the medical field for various purposes to suppress pain responses evoked by noxious electrical or mechanical stimuli. After both inferior alveolar nerves and the left anterior digastric muscle of cats under general anesthesia were exposed, a recording electrode for the jaw opening reflex was inserted into the anterior digastric muscle. The right inferior alveolar nerve was dissected under a surgical microscope until the response of the functional single nerve could be evoked by the electrical stimulation of the dental pulp or oral mucosa. The electrical stimulus was applied with a rectangular pulse of 10 ms duration for measuring the threshold intensity of a single nerve fiber in the inferior alveolar nerve which responds to stimulation of dental pulp and oral mucosa. Then a pulse of 1 ms duration was applied for determination of conduction velocity. A noxious mechanical stimulus to the oral mucosa was applied by clamping the receptive field with an arterial clamp. The Ga-As diodide laser(wave length, 904 nm ; frequency, 1,000 Hz) was irradiated to the prepared tooth cavity, inferior alveolar nerve and oral mucosa as a pulse wave of 2 mW for 6 minutes. This was followed by a continuous wave of 15 mW for 3 minutes. The action potential of the nerve and EMG of the digastric muscle evoked by the noxious electrical stimulus and nerve response to noxious mechanical stimulus were compared at intervals of before, immediately after, and at 5, 10, 20, 40, 60 minutes after laser irradiation. The results were as follows: The conduction velocity of the intrapulpal $A{\delta}$- nerve fiber recorded from the inferior alveolar nerve before irradiation had a mean value of $6.68{\pm}2.07m/sec$. The laser irradiation did not affect the conduction velocity of the AS - nerve fiber and did not change the threshold intensity or amplitude of the action potential either. The EMG of the digastric muscle evoked by noxious electrical stimulation to the tooth was not changed by the laser irradiation, whether in latency, threshold intensity or amplitude. The laser irradiated to the receptive field of the oral mucosa which was subjected to noxious stimuli did not affect the amplitude of the action potential or the frequency either.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• 제39권3호
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• pp.215-219
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• 2014

Whenever endodontic therapy is performed on mandibular posterior teeth, damage to the inferior alveolar nerve or any of its branches is possible. Acute periapical infection in mandibular posterior teeth may also sometimes disturb the normal functioning of the inferior alveolar nerve. The most common clinical manifestation of these insults is the paresthesia of the inferior alveolar nerve or mental nerve paresthesia. Paresthesia usually manifests as burning, prickling, tingling, numbness, itching or any deviation from normal sensation. Altered sensation and pain in the involved areas may interfere with speaking, eating, drinking, shaving, tooth brushing and other events of social interaction which will have a disturbing impact on the patient. Paresthesia can be short term, long term or even permanent. The duration of the paresthesia depends upon the extent of the nerve damage or persistence of the etiology. Permanent paresthesia is the result of nerve trunk laceration or actual total nerve damage. Paresthesia must be treated as soon as diagnosed to have better treatment outcomes. The present paper describes a case of mental nerve paresthesia arising after the start of the endodontic therapy in left mandibular first molar which was managed successfully by conservative treatment.

• Journal of Dental Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
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• 제19권3호
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• pp.125-134
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• 2019

Successful local anesthesia in dental treatment is the most important prerequisite for pain control of patients. However, unlike that in the maxilla, it is difficult to administer local anesthesia in the mandible, and the success rate of conventional inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB) is only 80-85%. It is attributed to various causes such as anatomical variations, extreme anxiety, and technical errors; thus, various alternatives have been devised to improve this. We will analyze the causes of failure in conventional IANB and examine various alternatives that can be applied in these cases.

• Journal of Dental Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
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• 제15권2호
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• pp.63-68
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• 2015

Background: Conventional anesthetic nerve block injections into the mandibular foramen risk causing nerve damage. This study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of the anterior technique (AT) of inferior alveolar nerve block using felypressin-propitocaine with a conventional nerve block technique (CT) using epinephrine and lidocaine for anesthesia via the mandibular foramen. Methods: Forty healthy university students with no recent dental work were recruited as subjects and assigned to two groups: right side CT or right side AT. Anesthesia was evaluated in terms of success rate, duration of action, and injection pain. These parameters were assessed at the first incisor, premolar, and molar, 60 min after injection. Chi-square and unpaired t-tests were used for statistical comparisons, with a P value of < 0.05 designating significance. Results: The two nerve block techniques generated comparable success rates for the right mandible, with rates of 65% (CT) and 60% (AT) at both the first molar and premolar, and rates of 60% (CT) and 50% (AT) at the lateral incisor. The duration of anesthesia using the CT was $233{\pm}37min$, which was approximately 40 min shorter than using the AT. This difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Injection pain using the AT was rated as milder compared with the CT. This difference was also statistically significant (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The AT is no less successful than the CT for inducing anesthesia, and has the added benefits of a significantly longer duration of action and significantly less pain.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• 제49권4호
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• pp.171-183
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• 2023

Objectives: Understanding the lingual nerve's precise location is crucial to prevent iatrogenic injury. This systematic review seeks to determine the lingual nerve's most probable topographical location in the posterior mandible. Materials and Methods: Two electronic databases were searched, identifying studies reporting the lingual nerve's position in the posterior mandible. Anatomical data in the vertical and horizontal dimensions at the retromolar and molar regions were collected for meta-analyses. Results: Of the 2,700 unique records identified, 18 studies were included in this review. In the vertical plane, 8.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.0%-21.7%) and 6.3% (95% CI, 1.9%-12.5%) of the lingual nerves coursed above the alveolar crest at the retromolar and third molar regions. The mean vertical distance between the nerve and the alveolar crest ranged from 12.10 to 4.32 mm at the first to third molar regions. In the horizontal plane, 19.9% (95% CI, 0.0%-62.7%) and 35.2% (95% CI, 13.0%-61.1%) of the lingual nerves were in contact with the lingual plate at the retromolar and third molar regions. Conclusion: This systematic review mapped out the anatomical location of the lingual nerve in the posterior mandible, highlighting regions that warrant additional caution during surgeries to avoid iatrogenic lingual nerve injuries.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• 제49권2호
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• pp.79-86
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• 2019

Purpose: This study reviewed the common conditions associated with displacement of inferior alveolar nerve canal. Materials and Methods: General search engines and specialized databases including Google Scholar, Pub Med, Pub Med Central, Science Direct, and Scopus were used to find relevant studies by using keywords such as "mandibular canal", "alveolar canal", "inferior alveolar nerve canal", "inferior dental canal", "inferior mandibular canal" and "displacement". Results: About 120 articles were found, of which approximately 70 were broadly relevant to the topic. We ultimately included 37 articles that were closely related to the topic of interest. When the data were compiled, the following 8 lesions were found to have a relationship with displacement of mandibular canal: radicular/residual cysts, dentigerous cyst, odontogenic keratocyst, aneurysmal bone cyst, ameloblastoma, central giant cell granuloma, fibrous dysplasis, and cementossifying fibroma. Conclusion: When clinicians encounter a lesion associated with displaced mandibular canal, they should first consider these entities in the differential diagnosis. This review would help dentists make more accurate diagnoses and develop better treatment plans according to patients' radiographs.

• Journal of Dental Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.29-35
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• 2017

Background: No study has compared lidocaine with articaine, each at a concentration of 4% and combined with epinephrine. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of 4% lidocaine with that of 4% articaine, with a concentration of 1:100,000 epinephrine added to each, in an inferior alveolar nerve block for surgery on impacted lower third molars. Method: This study was conducted at the Faculty of Dentistry, Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand. The randomized, single-blind, comparative split-mouth study was carried out in patients with symmetrically impacted lower third molars, as identified on panoramic radiographs. Each patient underwent surgery for the removal of the lower third molars by the same surgeon under local anesthesia at two separate visits, 3 weeks apart. The onset and duration of local anesthesia, intra-operative pain, surgical duration, and number of additional anesthetics administered were recorded. Results: The subjective and objective onset of action for the local anesthetics showed statistically significant differences (P < 0.05). However, the intra-operative pain, surgical duration, duration of local anesthesia, and number of additional anesthetics administered did not show statistically significant differences. Conclusion: The use of 4% articaine for the inferior alveolar nerve block was clinically more effective in the onset of subjective and objective anesthesia as compared with the use of 4% lidocaine. Based on the pain scores from the visual analogue scale, 4% lidocaine provided more analgesia during the procedure, and patients noted less intra-operative pain than with 4% articaine; however, the difference was not clinically significant.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• 제22권1호
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• pp.278-290
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• 1997

The purposes of this study were to evaluate and compare the pulpal anesthesia induced by an inferior alveolar nerve block and that by Gow-Gates technique, and to investigate the relationship between pulpal anesthesia and intraoral soft tissue responses. After one side of mandibule was anesthetized with inferior alveolar nerve block or Gow-Gates technique using 2 % lidocaine with 1 : 100,000 epinephrine in 19 volunteers of ages between 24 and 29 (16 males and 3 females, average age 25.9 yrs.), electric pulp tests were done on the canine teeth of the anesthetized side and contralateral one before, at 1 min, continued at every 5 minutes until 60 min, and every 10 minutes until 100 min after completion of local anesthetic injection. Degree of pulpal anesthesia was classified as anesthetic failure, possible anesthesia and complete anesthesia by the criteria based on the thresholds to electric pulp test of contralateral canine and the currents of the electric pulp tester. Subjective signs on the lower lip and tongue were checked and prick-pin tests were done on the buccal gingiva of the first molar, buccal and lingual gingiva of the canine tooth at 5, 10 and 20 min after the completion of anesthetic injection. Thresholds to electric pulp test, degree of pulpal anesthesia and relationship between the pulpal anesthesia and soft tissue responses were analyzed with SPSS, paired t-test, Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test and correlation analysis. The results were as follows : No significant differences were found in the peak thresholds to electric pulp test, in the induction time to it and in the depth of pulpal anesthesia between inferior alveolar nerve block and Gow-Gates technique (p>0.05). There was no significant relationship between pulpal anesthesia and soft tissue responses in both inferior nerve block and Gow-Gates technique.

• Journal of Dental Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
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• 제21권4호
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• pp.269-282
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• 2021

This review aimed to assess and compare the outcomes of the anesthetic efficacy of inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB) and Gow-Gates mandibular nerve block (GGMNB) in patients with symptomatic irreversible pulpitis. A descriptive systematic review of quantitative research was conducted wherein the "Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA)" was adopted, and the Problem/Patient/Population, Intervention/Indicator, Comparison, Outcome (PICO) criteria were used to structure the research question. A literature search was performed using PubMed/Medline, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, and Ovid. Selection criteria were applied for populations over nine years of age, of either sex, with irreversible pulpitis, and articles published in English regarding conventional IANB or IANB and Gow-Gates techniques between 2009 and 2019. Prospective randomized clinical trials or randomized controlled trials were included in the review, in which anesthetic efficacy or success was measured. After screening, four articles were included. Three studies were randomized clinical trials, and two were randomized controlled trials. The validity and reliability of the individual studies were examined. There was evidence of the higher efficacy of the GGMNB technique than that of the IANB technique. However, both techniques can be mastered through training.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• 제49권5호
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• pp.262-269
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• 2023

Objectives: Anterior maxillary sinus wall fractures are common in all types of maxillofacial trauma. They can result in various complications, including injury to the surrounding nerves. Owing to its anatomy, trauma to the maxillary antrum can result in injury to the middle superior alveolar nerve (MSAN) and the anterior superior alveolar nerve (ASAN). The purpose of this study is to evaluate neurosensory deficits (NSD) present in maxillary gingiva, incisors, and premolars after injury to the anterior wall of the maxillary antrum. Materials and Methods: This prospective study was conducted among 39 patients sustaining unilateral fractures of the anterior maxillary sinus wall. Clinical neurosensory tests including two-point discrimination and fine touch discrimination were performed to classify the extent of nerve injuries as mild, moderate, severe, or anesthetic. Additional temperature discrimination and pulpal sensibility tests (electric pulp testing and cold testing) were carried out. A comparison of radiographic fracture patterns and severity of nerve injury was done. Testing was carried out immediately after trauma and at 2-month follow-up. Results: More than half of the patients assessed in the study group presented with NSD of the teeth and gingiva after trauma. The incidence of deficits varied with the type of test used to measure them. Most frequently, patients presented with both loss of two point as well as fine touch discrimination thresholds. Severe nerve injuries were associated with loss of temperature discrimination clinically and displaced fractures radiographically. There was no significant relationship between the recovery of pulpal and gingival sensation. The patterns of injury and recovery in ASAN and MSAN were similar. Conclusion: NSD after trauma to the maxillary antrum is relatively common. Clinical loss of temperature discrimination and radiographic signs of fracture lines passing through the canalis sinuosus are predictors of persistent and severe oral NSD.