Tramadol hydrochloride: An alternative to conventional local anaesthetics for intraoral procedures- a preliminary study.

Purpose: To evaluate and compare the soft tissue anaesthesia produced by tramadol hydrochloride on gingival tissues in maxilla.

Methods: A total of 50 ASA physical status I subjects between 18 and 35 years of age, both male and female were included in the study. Each individual received 0.5 ml of 50 mg tramadol in the soft tissues over maxillary canine tooth as local infiltration on one and 0.5 ml of 20 mg lignocaine on the contralateral side in a double-blinded fashion. After completing the injection, the author recorded pain on injection, the onset of action, duration of anaesthesia, side effects, and feedback from patient.

Results: The mean onset of anaesthesia for tramadol was 172.00 s (standard deviation 39.898) while for lignocaine it was 162.60 s (standard deviation 35.098) and there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.214). The mean duration of anaesthesia for tramadol group was 45.70 min with a standard deviation of 8.512 min whereas for lignocaine group it was 44.70 min with a standard deviation of 8.107 min. There was no statistical relevant difference between the two groups in duration of anaesthesia (p = 0.549). None of the subjects reported any side effect in both the groups. There was no significant difference in pain on injection between the two groups.

Conclusions: Tramadol has a local anaesthetic effect similar to lignocaine when injected as infiltration in oral soft tissues.