Lingual Anesthesia of the Lower Anterior Teeth, Which Technique is Better?

Purpose: To extract the lower anterior teeth, the oral surgeon needs to anesthetize the pulpal tissue of the accused tooth and the surrounding tissues. The lingual nerve innervates the lingual soft tissue to the lower teeth, this nerve usually anesthetized alongside the inferior alveolar nerve by a block technique. However, the lingual tissue of the lower anterior teeth usually anesthetized by either infiltration or periodontal ligament injection (PDL) techniques. This study was intended to compare between these two techniques.

Methods: Forty-eight teeth were extracted from 24 patients. Non-adjacent two lower anterior teeth in the same patient were selected. The lingual soft tissue in one of them was anesthetized by PDL injection technique while the other tooth by infiltration technique.

Results: The study included 24 patients (14 males and 10 females). There was no significant difference in relation to the pain during injection between the two groups, while there was a significant difference between the two groups in relation to bleeding.

Conclusions: A recommendation was made to use the PDL injection technique to anesthetize the lingual soft tissue during extraction of the lower anterior teeth.