title: Reasons for local anesthesia failures.
abstract: U.S. dental practitioners administer about 4,000,000 local anesthetic blocks and infiltrations annually. The failure rate to achieve adequate anesthesia for the procedure is estimated to be 5 percent to 15 percent. This article describes five different categories of failures and suggest ways to troubleshoot them.
authors.affiliation: University of the Pacific, School of Dentistry, San Francisco.
authors.forename: M K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: P L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Jacobsen
mesh_terms: D000766:Anesthesia, Dental / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000379:methods; D000772:Anesthesia, Local / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000379:methods; D016854:Dental Anxiety / Q000150:complications; D007267:Injections / Q000379:methods*; D008334:Mandible / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000294:innervation