The Use of Local Anesthesia in Pediatric Dentistry: A Survey of Specialists’ Current Practices in Children and Attitudes in Relation to Articaine

Table 3

Participants’ responses regarding the clinical administration of local anesthesia in children.

		By gender	By years of experience
		p Value^a	p Value^a
Do you use topical anesthesia in your practice with children?
Yes	71 (98.6%)	0.073	0.394
No	1 (1.4%)
How long do you wait for topical anesthesia before you infect?
<10 s	2 (2.8%)	0.865	0.165
10–30 s	12 (16.7%)
30–60 s	21 (29.2%)
>60 s	36 (50.0%)
How do you position your child patient when administering/injecting local anesthesia?
Supine	34 (47.2%)	0.195	0.543
Upright	5 (6.9%)
Semiupright	20 (27.8%)
Depending on pt.’s cooperation/preference	13 (18.1%)
Do you try to hide the needle from the sight of your patient?
Always	63 (87.5%)	0.370	0.394
Often	6 (8.3%)
Sometimes	3 (4.2%)
Rarely	0 (0%)
Never	0 (0%)
What length of needle do you use most often for infiltration anesthesia?
Long	1 (1.4%)	0.053	0.813
Short	34 (47.2%)
Ultrashort	37 (51.4%)
What length of needle do you use most often for ID block anesthesia?
Long	29 (40.3%)	0.207	0.058
Short	42 (58.3%)
Ultrashort	1 (1.4%)
How often do you get disruptive behaviors associated with injections?
Always	8 (11.1%)	0.354	0.587
Often	21 (29.2%)
Sometimes	36 (50.0%)
Rarely	7 (9.7%)
Never	0 (0%)
How long does it take you to inject a full carpule?
<10 s	5 (6.9%)	0.060	0.544
10–30 s	25 (34.7%)
30–60 s	34 (47.2%)
>60 s	8 (11.1%)
How often do you find difficulties in calculating the maximum dose allowed for your child patient?
Always	14 (19.4%)	0.363	0.008
Often	58 (80.6%)
Sometimes	0 (0%)
Rarely	0 (0%)
Never	0 (0%)
How often do you get to actively stablize the child with parental asssistance and/or nursing staff to recieve an injection?
Always	6 (4.5%)	0.339	0.407
Often	31 (23.5%)
Sometimes	56 (42.4%)
Rarely	32 (24.2%)
Never	7 (5.3%)

Abbreviations. n, number; s, seconds; pt., patient. ^aFisher’s exact test; a statistically significant difference.