Comparative study of two anaesthetic protocols involving conventional and Vazirani-Akinosi alveolar inferior nerve block for lower third molar extraction

INTRODUCTION: The inferior alveolar nerve block has a high percentage of failure in dentistry. To improve this ratio, has been studied different alternatives, as different techniques, as well as anesthetics. OBJECTIVE: Evaluate two different techniques (conventional technique and Vazirani-Akinosi) for inferior alveolar nerve block, and compare them regarding their effectiveness and quantify the percentage of positive aspirations in both techniques. MATERIAL AND METHOD: 160 patients were evaluated for both sex, with 80 undergoing Vazirani-Akinosi technique plus buccal nerve block (G1), and 80 to conventional inferior alveolar nerve block plus buccal nerve block (G2), both groups using a combination of 4% articaine with 1:100.000 epinephrine to buccal nerve block and 2% lidocaine with 1:100.000 epinephrine to inferior alveolar nerve block. We evaluated the amount of positive aspirations, the effectiveness or not of anesthesia (pain) and when it occurred during the surgical procedure. RESULT: There were no statistically significant differences (p = 0.2453) between G1 and G2 observing the positive aspiration. It was obtained efficiency of 90% for both techniques. CONCLUSION: No significant difference between the conventional alveolar inferior nerve block technique and Vazirani-Akinosi alveolar nerve block technique considering the amount of positive aspirations and efficacy, and the use of 4% articaine with 1:100.000 epinephrine in buccal nerve block possibly increased the anesthetic efficacy of both techniques.