The Use of Local Anesthesia in Pediatric Dentistry: A Survey of Specialists’ Current Practices in Children and Attitudes in Relation to Articaine

Aims . This study aimed to evaluate the clinical practices of local anesthesia in children. The study also sought to investigate pediatric dentists’ views on articaine infiltration anesthesia and their willingness to use it to replace the inferior dental nerve block in primary molars. Materials and Methods . A cross‐sectional survey was emailed to 183 registered specialists. Descriptive statistics along with chi‐square and Fisher’s exact tests were used for data analysis. Results . A total of 72 responses were received. The sample consisted of 62 (86.1%) females and 10 (13.8%) males with varying levels of experience. The vast majority of respondents (98.6%) used topical anesthesia in their practice with children. The most frequently used anesthetic agent was 2% lidocaine (72.2%) followed by 4% articaine (54.2%). The entire sample indicated that they frequently find difficulties in dose calculation for their child patient. Gender and level of experience did not significantly influence specialists’ practice or their knowledge of local anesthesia. More than a third