Articaine: Opening up a New Vista For Pediatric Dentists

Abstract

Lidocaine has remained the gold standard local anaesthetic agent to perform dental procedures both in the
adult as well as in the pediatric patients. However, the invent of articaine has offered the clinicians with a
newer and more potent local anaesthetic agent, which causes minimal side effects. Articaine is 1.5 times
more potent and 0.6 times less toxic than lidocaine. Also, adequate anaesthesia achieved through infiltration
route of administration of the drug, almost eliminates the need for the painful and difficult inferior alveolar
nerve block in children, thereby minimising the side effects. Thus, achieving adequate anaethesia through
the administration of a small volume of the drug has opened up a new vista for pediatric dentists in managing
pain in children, although manufacturers do not recommend the usage of articaine in children less than 4
years of age due to paucity of evidence. So, this review article tries to throw light on the use of articaine in
pediatric patients, citing evidence from literature and also tries to portray the recent advances in the research
on articaine use in pediatric patients less than 4 years of age.