Intraligamentary anesthesia: Alternative to IANB and infiltration anesthesia

Dental and technical progress of the last 25 years

Local anesthesia – a permanent problem not only in military dental healthcare – has made considerable progress since the last Status report: the periodontal ligament injection, presented by J. A. Giovannitti and T. A. Nique and published in the JADA 1983; 106: 222-22410. The authors came to the conclusion,
that the periodontal ligament injection technique,
or intraligamentary anesthesia is an effective
means of producing adequate pulpal anesthesia for dental procedures. The specially adapted syringes available at that time: pistol-type syringes such as Ligmaject and Peripress offered the advantage – compared to conventional syringes – of standardizing the dose (0.2 ml per trigger pull) and to assist the dentist in delivering the high pressure necessary
for the success of the technique – state of the
art at that time. The authors did not recommend
routine use of the technique of intraligamental
injections because of extreme operator variability and the potential for postinjection complications, due to the armamentarium available at that time and the lack of scientific evaluation of this anesthesia method.