Children's behavioral pain reactions during local anesthetic injection using cotton-roll vibration method compared with routine topical anesthesia: A randomized controlled trial.
BACKGROUND
Topical anesthesia has been widely advocated as an important component of atraumatic administration of intraoral local anesthesia. The aim of this study was to use direct observation of children's behavioral pain reactions during local anesthetic injection using cotton-roll vibration method compared with routine topical anesthesia.


METHODS
Forty-eight children participated in this randomized controlled clinical trial. They received two separate inferior alveolar nerve block or primary maxillary molar infiltration injections on contralateral sides of the jaws by both cotton-roll vibration (a combination of topical anesthesia gel, cotton roll, and vibration for physical distraction) and control (routine topical anesthesia) methods. Behavioral pain reactions of children were measured according to the author-developed face, head, foot, hand, trunk, and cry (FHFHTC) scale, resulting in total scores between 0 and 18.


RESULTS
The total scores on the FHFHTC scale ranged between 0-5 and 0-10 in the cotton-roll vibration and control methods, respectively. The mean ± standard deviation values of total scores on FHFHTC scale were lower in the cotton-roll vibration method (1.21 ± 1.38) than in control method (2.44 ± 2.18), and this was statistically significant (P < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
It may be concluded that the cotton-roll vibration method can be more helpful than the routine topical anesthesia in reducing behavioral pain reactions in children during local anesthesia administration.
Dental Research Center, School of Dentistry, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Ali
A
Bagherian
Department of Social Medicine and Environment Research Center, Medical School, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran.
Mahmood
M
Sheikhfathollahi
Dental fear; local anesthesia; pediatric dentistry