Efficacy of a Vibrating Dental Syringe Attachment on Pain Levels

Aim: To assess if a commercially available vibrating dental syringe attachment, Vibrajet (Micromotors, USA), could reduce pain experienced by patients having intraoral injections for dental treatment. Methods: Patients selected for the study were due to receive a routine dental injection as part of their treatment. The pateints fell into two groups. Group A received one injection using the vibrating dental syringe attachment. Group B, the control group, received one injection using conventional methods. The patients were then asked to grade the injection pain using a visual analogue scale from 0-10. Zero was marked as no pain up to 10 as unbearable pain. The site of injection, the type of injection (infiltration or IDB), the operator and the pain score were all noted for each patient. No other pain relief adjuncts, such as topical anaesthetic gels, were used on any of the patients. Results: Subjects receiving the conventional injection methods had a mean pain score of 4.6 (± 0.414) The vibraject group had a mean pain score of 1.71 (±0.235)(P<0.05). Certain sites had larger decreases in the mean pain score using the vibraject. These included the upper anterior segment infiltrations and lower right IDB injections. Conclusions: The vibrating syringe attachment resulted in reduced pain levels on receiving intraoral injections.