May thermal imaging be useful in the assessment of dental anaesthesia? Preliminary study

The main goal of this study was to find out if thermal imaging may be useful in the evaluation of two types of anaesthetic injections—with and without a vasoconstrictor. There were 20 patients (13 women and 7 men) involved in the study. The group was divided into two subgroups. Patients from the first subgroup received infiltration anaesthesia (so-called: IA) of lidocaine (2 mL) and the second group included patients, who received infiltration anaesthesia (so-called: IAN) of lidocaine with 2% noradrenaline (2 mL). The obtained results showed a significant increase in the average temperature 10 min after the injection. In the IA group, the temperature increase was nearly 1.0 °C what was 0.3 °C higher than in the IAN group. Moreover, temperature changes showed a wide plateau between 10 and 25 min after anesthesia administration. The effect of temperature rise was also observed on the contralateral cheek where there was no intervention renders by a contralateral reflex.