Comparison of posterior superior alveolar and greater palatine nerve block with local infiltration for extraction of maxillary molars in oral surgery – A randomized controlled trial

Administration of local anesthetic drug that prevents pain during dental treatment is of absolute importance. Act of injecting local anesthetic should be nonpainful and atraumatic. The maxilla is very porous and highly vascular. Therefore, anesthesia of maxillary teeth can be accomplished more easily than with mandibular teeth. The aim of this study is to determine the anesthetic efficacy of the conventional technique of posterior superior alveolar (PSA) and greater palatine nerve(GP) block anesthesia as compared to the buccal and palatal technique in terms of pain during injection, after extraction, after 15mins of the procedure and quality of anesthesia during the extraction procedure. The study also intends to determine the incidence of positive aspiration in the infiltration technique. This randomized clinical study was carried out on 154 patients who reported to the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Sri Rajiv Gandhi College of Dental Sciences & Hospital Bangalore, requiring extraction of maxillary second and third molar teeth. The patients received anesthesia using the conventional nerve block technique and infiltration technique randomly on each side of the mouth. Patients were assessed for pain during the injection, after extraction, and after 15mins of the procedure with each technique using Visual Analog Scale (VAS). The patients were also assessed for pain using the Verbal Response Scale (VRS). The positive aspiration was assessed for each technique. During tooth extraction, quality of anesthesia was assessed using an eight-point category rating scale. The results obtained were analyzed using Chi-square test. It was concluded that the buccal infiltration technique is less painful for the patient as compared to the posterior superior alveolar nerve block. This technique has a lower frequency of positive aspiration as compared with the PSA nerve block. However, the PSA nerve block technique provides better-quality of anesthesia. It can be concluded that the infiltration technique appears to be a successful alternative with additional advantages, as compared to the nerve block technique.