ANESTHESIA WITHOUT INJECTIONS – A NEW PROSPECT FOR DENTISTRY

No pain, no fear, no stress - that's the future of dentistry!

Until recently, people couldn’t have imagined that going to a dentist and getting dental anesthesia could be pain-free. Scientists from the University at Buffalo, USA, together with Dr. Mark Collard, confirmed this in their new achievement - nasal anesthesia, which is in essence a nasal spray.

The history of the invention of nasal anesthesia is interesting and purely coincidental. In 2000, while playing basketball, Dr. Mark Collard injured his nose, and to ease the pain sprayed his nasal cavity with a special anesthetic spray used in otorhinolaryngology. After a while, he noticed that not only was his nose numb, but also his upper jaw. It was after this incident that Dr. Collard began experimenting with this type of anesthesia.

The anesthetic spray which was later dubbed Kovacaine Mist has already been used on 300 patients, 270 of whom did not require additional analgesia and the procedure was well tolerated.

The principle of Kovacaine Mist lies in the fact that when the anesthetic reaches the nasal mucosa along the trigeminal nerve fibers, it then spreads to the upper jaw. The beauty of this innovative form of anesthesia is that only the upper jaw becomes anesthetized and not the upper lip and soft tissues, which reduces the discomfort to a minimum.

This anesthesia can be used for both adults and children, and the numbing effect is actually a little bit better than with normal anesthesia.

Many doctors and patients are interested in the question of whether the new type of anesthesia can replace the usual anesthesia we’ve become accustomed to. At the current state of research and application, we can confidently say - no! The reason for this is that it only works on the upper jaw, so the lower still requires standard conduction anesthesia.

So far, this method has been employed in dental practice in the US, and the price for it varies from $20-$40. Despite the cost of the procedure, scientists predict a high demand among patients next year.

Clinical trials of the drug are still ongoing, and scientists believe that soon Kovacaine Mist will be used not only in the US but also in Europe.

Patients who are mortified of injections have high expectations for this innovative anesthesia. After Kovacaine Mist begins to be widely used in dentistry, such patients can safely tolerate the procedure which previously incited fear.

By Dr. Iryna Todoriyuk, BiMedis company

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