Buffered Articaine–A Literature Review

Articaine hydrochloride has steadily gained popularity among the pediatric dental practitioners. Plenty of research advocates that use of articaine in pediatric patients is safe and effective. It is said to be 1.5 times more potent and 0.6 times less toxic local anesthetic. It is also least likely to induce an overdose from the administration of too much anesthetic. This makes articaine one of the most preferred drugs in pediatric use. Newer techniques have emerged that assists clinician to enhance the success of the local anesthetic injections. Alkalizing the anesthetic cartridge is one such technique. Studies have shown that buffered articaine is a better anesthetic agent in terms of efficacy and success. An electronic search of databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar) was carried out in order to identify all relevant articles using a combination of the following keywords: “Buffered local anesthetics”, “buffered articaine”, “Articaine” for all clinical studies. All the studies reviewed indicated satisfactory results for the use of buffered articaine. It highlights the advantages such as lack of burning sensation during injection, quick onset on action and good quality of anesthesia on both subjective and objective evaluations. There are only a few studies and varying evidence regarding the effectiveness of buffered articaine in adults and, to the best of our knowledge. Extensive research is warranted to evaluate the efficacy of buffered articaine use in children. Key Words: Articaine hydrochloride, Local anesthetic, Pediatric dental practitioners