Articaine – the queen of infiltrative anaesthesia? A peculiar amino-amide local anaesthetic and its use in the dental practice from a pharmacological perspective

The importance of local anaesthetics in dentistry cannot be overestimated. Being the most commonly used drugs in dental practice, these medicines are simply indispensable, as they allow for intra-operative and partly post-operative pain control in procedures performed. The injectable agents, currently employed in dentistry, belong, almost exclusively, to the amino-amide class. The paper focuses on articaine — a peculiar amino-amide local anaesthetic, which exhibits exceptional features distinguishing it from other drugs in the group and endearing it to dental practitioners all over the world, at the same time. The structure of the drug is presented and characteristics arising from its unique attributes are discussed. The article covers the practical aspects of articaine use in various fields of dentistry and oral surgery and arising prospects for the future. Despite the wide safety margin of the agent, articaine, like any other local anaesthetic, may induce unwanted side-effects, which were also described here, and their management was briefly presented.