The use of oral nerve blocks

A balanced anaesthesia plan should be designed for all patients, including dental patients, and those requiring faciomaxillary surgery, e.g. mandibulectomy. This should include pre-emptive, intra-operative and post-operative analgesics. Local anaesthesia techniques are being increasingly used in anaesthetic and pain management plans for dental patients and comprise techniques which are relatively simple to perform. Local anaesthesia can be defined as a temporary loss of sensation in a specific, limited area of the body without loss of consciousness (Reuss-Lamky, 2007). The use of local anaesthetics should be considered for all surgical procedures as they provide the only true analgesia, where as all other analgesic agents in fact ‘reduce’ pain.

Lidocaine and bupivacaine can be mixed with epinephrine to produce localised vasoconstriction (local anaesthetics will cause vasodilation which increases bleeding and shortens their duration of action at the site). This serves to delay the absorption of the drug and prolongs the duration of action, however this is not commonly performed in veterinary local blocks and is contraindicated in certain patients, e.g. cardiac patients.