Efficacy of articaine, of bupivacaine and lidocaine and in patients associated with irreversible pulpitis in mandibular molars

The aim of this study was to compare the anesthetic efficacy of 4% articaine and 2% lidocaine both associated with 1:100,000 epinephrine and 0.5% bupivacaine associated with 1:200,000 epinephrine in patients with irreversible pulpitis of the mandibular molars during a pulpectomy procedure. One hundred and five volunteers from the Emergency Center of the School of Dentistry at University of São Paulo randomly received 3.6 mL of local anesthetic as a conventional inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB). The subjective signal of lip numbness, pulpal anesthesia and the absence of pain during the pulpectomy procedure were, respectively, evaluated by questioning the patient, stimulation using an electric pulp tester and a verbal analogue scale. Statistical analysis was performed using the chi-square test, Kruskal Wallis and likelihood rations. The level for significance of differences was P <= .05. All patients reported the subjective signal of lip numbness after the application of either IANB. Lidocaine showed higher values for pulpal anesthesia after the IANB (42.9%) and after injection in the periodontal ligament (61.5%). Bupivacaine presented higher values for analgesia after the IANB (80,0%) and lidocaine after injection in the periodontal ligament (92,3%). After the failure of the IANB, the pain in the pulp chamber was the most frequent to articaine and lidocaine and bupivacaine for dentin and after the failure of the periodontal ligament injection, the pain was equal to articaine in different regions, chamber, canal and dentin; for bupivacaine was greater in dentin and lidocaine was higher in the channel. However, these differences were not statistically significant. So the three local anesthetic solutions behave similarly and not present any effective pain control in the treatment of irreversible pulpitis in mandibular molars.