As per study published in “Clinical Oral Investigations”, the intraligamentary anesthesia was found to be a safe and reliable methodology of local anesthesia to treat lower premolars and molars. It illustrated a success rate equivalent to inferior alveolar nerve block without temporary irritations and complications. Bahaa R Youssef et al. performed this randomized prospective clinical trial to explore the efficacy and complications of intraligamentary anesthesia vs. conventional inferior alveolar nerve block during routine management of mandibular posterior teeth.

The study included 72 patients (39 men, 33 women), scheduled for dental therapy of mandibular posterior teeth. Participants were randomly assigned to intraligamentary anesthesia group (received intraligamentary anesthesia injection, n=35) or the inferior alveolar nerve block group (received the conventional inferior alveolar nerve block, n=37).

The major endpoint was the evaluation of stress and pain (discomfort) during injection and dental therapy, utilizing the numeric rating scale. The secondary outcome parameters were the assessment of 24-hour post-surgery complications.

Compared to the inferior alveolar nerve block group, participants in the intraligamentary anesthesia arm witnessed comparatively less pain during injection. Pain during mandibular posterior teeth  treatment was comparable in both arms. Both the arms displayed comparable law values of discomfort during the therapy.

No major postoperative complications in both groups were observed. Although no signs of nerve contact or any other post-surgery complications were witnessed, five subjects in the inferior alveolar nerve block arm (none in the intraligamentary anesthesia cohort) witnessed temporary irritations. Thus, both approaches have equivalent efficacy to alleviate pain during routine dental therapy of mandibular posterior teeth.