Sensation of Pain when using Computerized Injection Technique (the Wand™)

Objectives: Pain control when treating children and adolescents is of great importance in order to prevent future dental anxiety and treatment problems. Local anaesthesia offers an almost painless dental treatment but the injection itself is often associated with fear and anxiety. Topical anaesthesia, slow injection and good psychological preparing reduce the pain. In spite of that, the experience of palatal injection is often painful because of the resistance of the palatal tissue. The aim of this study was to compare the sensation of pain when using computerized injection – the Wand™ - compared to conventional technique in surgical procedures involving the palate. Methods: Twenty adolescents in need of bilateral identical surgical measurements as surgical exposure of canines and/or extractions for orthodontic reasons in the upper jaw were offered conventional anaesthesia on one side and computerized low pressure anaesthesia on the other side. The VAS scale was used to report the pain immediately after injection and also after the surgical procedure was finished to report the pain experience of the whole procedure together. The statistical method used was Wilcoxon matched pairs test. Results: The reported sensation of pain was significantly lower, (p < 0.01), when using the Wand™. However, there was no difference in the global pain report of the total surgical procedure (p > 0.2). Patients reporting fear of injection experienced much less pain when having a computerized injection (p<0.001), while there was hardly any difference in pain experience among patients with no or only little fear for injection. Conclusions: Computerized injection technique in the palate was less painful compared to conventional injection technique especially among those who reported fear for injections.