Allan Deutsch
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THINK THAT all of us have wanted to learn how to give a painless injection.
I certainly have. Long ago someone taught me to shake and push and
rotate the mucosa that the needle was going to penetrate. This effectively
was using the “Gate Control Theory” of pain as first proposed by Melzak
and Wall in the 1970s. It works well for the maxillary arch, where
you can grab the mucosa, but not too well for a mandibular block injection.
Now the first major advancement in this area is
being marketed. It is a device called the VibraJect. The VibraJect
clips onto any type of syringe that you are currently using for anesthesia.
It causes the entire syringe to vibrate . The vibration feels like
that from a pager or cell phone, but the amplitude is not as large.
The device appears to vibrate at a high frequency and does not affect the
positioning of the needle at all.
I have been using it for approximately three months
now. The vast majority of patients report either not feeling the
mandibular block injection or just feeling it ever so slightly. Certainly,
that represents a vast improvement over the reduction in pain from a preliminary
topical and a little shaking. This device is now part of my regular
armamentarium and remains on the bracket table at all times. It has
not been relegated to the “drawer of useless devices.”
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FIGURE 2: The VibraJect
clipped in place on a syringe.
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The VibraJect is an excellent product, and I recommend
it highly if you want to reduce the pain of injections in your practice.
The price is around $250. It can be purchased from:
Ron Wasserman
Metropolitan Dental Supply, Inc.
35-02 Crescent Street
Long Island City
NY 11106
Phone: (718) 706-6677.
May-June 2003
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FIGURE 1: The VibraJect.
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