What do you do if a patient is complaining of pain during treatment i.e. the hyperaemic tooth which is really sensitive?
A. Everybody has experienced these hot pulps and this can be a real challenge to carry out any invasive treatment. There are now aids to assist us now such as the intra-osseous local anaesthetic device Intraflow, from ProDex. This phenomenally easy to use device has revolutionised anaesthesia in the States and provides a nice adjunct to our clinical treatment of these cases. Take a look at the product movie on the website. Even more simple steps exist such as the advent of articaine (trade name Septanest) local anaesthetic which provides a more potent form of local, or the not particularly popular intrapulpal injection which although very sore, is only tender for a couple of seconds and provides immediate relief, allowing us to carry out more of the remedial treatment. If none of these appear to work simply place some ledermix wherever you are in the pulp chamber seal up the tooth and review again as soon as possible. A nice addition to this is to get the patient to take 400mg Ibuprofe
