Introduction: Usually discomfort and pain are associated with dental work, especially for young patients. Pain control can be achieved by using anesthesia. Sight of injection can terrify any patient and if the patient is a child it is really difficult to convince them for injections. Alternatives to injections have been explored. Pediatric dentists are using anesthesia in the form of jelly and patch. Recently, the concept of mucosal vibration has been put forward to enhance the effectiveness of local anesthesia.
Aim: The aim of the present study was to compare and evaluate the effectiveness of lignocaine jelly and mucosal vibration in reducing pain during administration of local anesthesia in pediatric dental patients.
Materials and methods: Thirty children in the age group 6 to 11 years who required bilateral anesthesia for dental treatment in mandible were selected for this study. Pain was compared using Wilcoxon signed-rank test at the time of injection using Sound, Eye, Motor (SEM) scale as objective criteria and facial pain rating (FPR) scale as subjective criteria after administration of injection by a trained assistant who was blinded to the procedure.
Results: Local anesthetic injection along with mucosal vibration resulted in significantly less pain (p = 0.001) in comparison with the injections without the use of mucosal vibration.
Conclusion: The result shows that mucosal vibration can be used as an effective means to reduce the intensity of pain during local anesthetic injection in dentistry.