Short-term follow-up complications associated with inferior alveolar nerve block using different anesthetics: A systematic review.

Inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB) is considered the most widely used anesthetic technique and the gold standard for blocking the hemimandible. This method is used in routine dental and oral surgical practice. The aim of this systematic review was to analyze reports related to the IANB technique combined with different local anesthetics. The PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines were adopted to identify relevant studies, and the PICO (Patient/Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcomes) criteria were used to structure the research question. The literature search was conducted using PubMed/MEDLINE, Cochrane Library and Embase databases. The search was undertaken without temporal constraints. Prospective randomized clinical trials and randomized controlled trials were used as filters. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were chosen to initially select the appropriate articles from the published titles, followed by abstract reading. After evaluating the selected articles, the results of the research indicated that no relevant side effects were noted in any of the groups, irrespective of the anesthetic solution utilized. However, it is important to acknowledge that a follow-up period of 1 day may be too short to observe subsequent complications, evolution, or spontaneous remission of its eventual sequelae. Therefore, future randomized controlled clinical trials with large samples and longer follow-up periods are required to confirm these findings.