DOI: 10.21276/sajp.2017.6.3

Pages: 16-26

Topical anesthetics are frequently used to reduce the pain of the needle insertion administration of topical anesthesia. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of topical anesthetics on pain during needle insertion of maxillary infiltration anesthesia. The studies searched in seven databases (PubMed/Medline, ISI Web of Science, Science direct, Cochran library, IranMedex, Google scholar and Scopus) before the summer of 2016 for English-language publications. The criteria were identified for selecting of studies in meta-analysis. The quality of studies was checked based on the Jadad score. The random-effects model was used to estimate weighted mean differences with 95% CI. Out of 14 studies in the systematic review, three studies just have high quality and eight articles reported the mean value and standard deviation of the pain and therefore, these eight articles were included in the meta-analysis. The subgroup analyses were done by type of group (benzocaine or lidocaine), time-effect (2, 3, 4, 5, and 20 min), the kind of using material (patch or non-patch) and injection area (anterior labial and posterior buccal). The pain was significantly lower in benzocaine group, lidocaine group, benzocaine group in anterior labial injection, benzocaine/patch group and the 5 min group compared with their front groups. Begg’s and Egger’s tests did reveal a significant evidence of publication bias among the included studies.