The risks of injection anesthesia in dentistry

• Main Authors: O. Yu. Bogaevskaya, S. T. Sokhov
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) 2020-12-01
• Series: RUDN Journal of Medicine
• Subjects: questionnaire; injection efficiency and safety; local anesthesia risks; chronic fatigue syndrome
• Online Access: http://journals.rudn.ru/medicine/article/viewFile/23395/18071

The article intends to study the risks of performing injection anesthesia for dentists experiencing chronic fatigue syndrome. Materials and methods used: The survey was conducted from August to November 2019 at various dental clinics of Moscow, with 308 dentists having filled in the questionnaire. Information source: The “Questionnaire on Assessing Injection Security and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome” was offered to dentists from clinics representing different types of ownership and contained 88 questions. Results: 97,14% of the respondents were feeling anxious while performing local anesthesia, yet, regrettably, 14,28% of them had to refer the patient to a dental surgeon for this procedure. 17,14% (n=53) of the 308 respondents noted that they had to confront the patient’s general condition worsening significantly due to a local anesthetic injection prior to the start of dental treatment. The mistakes made mostly had to do with anesthetic choice (26,73%), needle choice (12%), and needle breakage (3,78%). 17,14 per cent of dentists had the experience of confronting grave, even fatal outcomes of anesthesia. The majority of dentists (74,29%) work from 41,2 to 57,7 hours weekly. The risk of developing chronic fatigue syndrome was assessed as high in 11,43% of all cases. Conclusion: Given the absence of prophylaxis in 45,71% of cases related to anesthetic injection and the increased concentration of vasoconstrictor in the anesthetic in 88,57% of all instances, keeping records of complications caused by injection anesthesia is recommended.