Abstract
Design The study was a multicentre randomised controlled trial (RCT).
Intervention A total of 130 patients received either the active or placebo gel in periodontal pockets in one quadrant of the mouth for 30 s, prior to periodontal debridement (scaling and root planing).
Outcome measure Pain was measured using both a 100-mm visual analogue scale (VAS) and a verbal rating scale (VRS).
Results The median VAS pain score for people treated with the anaesthetic gel was 5 mm (range, 0–5 mm) as opposed to 13 mm (range, 0–9 mm) in the placebo-treated patients (P=0.015). There was no significant difference in the proportion of patients who reported no pain or mild pain (78% and 76% for the anaesthetic gel and placebo, respectively).
Conclusions The VAS pain scores showed that the anaesthetic gel 5% was statistically more effective than the placebo in reducing pain during periodontal debridement.
Acknowledgements The study was supported by Astra Zeneca Pain Control Sweden.
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Address for correspondence: Dr David Donaldson, Department of Oral Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. E-mail: ddonald@interchange.ubc.ca
Donaldson D, Gelskey SC, Landry RG, Matthews DC, Sandhu HS. A placebo-controlled multi-centred evaluation of an anaesthetic gel (Oraqix) for periodontal therapy. Clin Periodontol 2003; 30:171–175
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Smart, G. Anaesthetic gel to reduce pain during periodontal scaling and root planing. Evid Based Dent 4, 78 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ebd.6400218
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ebd.6400218
