To be able to carry out most treatments in dentistry, it is necessary to eliminate pain or reduce the sensitivity of the area to be treated.
How can the pain be eliminated?
Pain can be eliminated in two ways: direct or indirect. The direct way is based on eliminating the cause which produces the pain, while the indirect way is by blocking the transmission of painful stimuli. Thus, in dentistry it is interesting to eliminate pain indirectly but that the elimination of pain lasts for the duration of dental treatment and that this is reversible.
Multiple clinical and surgical procedures that are performed every day in dentistry require anesthesia to be able to perform them properly, always using indirect pain control.
In dentistry there are several ways by which they are directed to pain control. In the lowest degree of pain control there is pharmacological analgesia, with which drugs, analgesics, are used to control pain. In the next grade, locoregional anesthesia, this is the most used in dentistry since the painful sensation of a certain area where you want to work is inhibited. Sedation is one of the most medical ways to control pain and, finally, the last degree of anesthesia is general anesthesia with which a total loss of consciousness is achieved.
What is The Wand STA system?
Some dental treatments are often associated with pain and discomfort. Acceptance of dental procedures was facilitated by the hypodermic syringe and the introduction of anesthetic agents.
However, many patients associate local anesthetic injection with pain despite the benefits of treatment. This pain can be caused by several reasons: by the result of a mechanical trauma produced by the insertion of the needle at the injection site, by the distension of the tissues by the anesthetic agent or by a rapid discharge of the contents of the syringe.
Therefore, an anesthesia that is comfortable for the patient is essential and in this way is to achieve the patient’s confidence in the operator from the beginning of the procedure. Therefore, it is important to seek techniques that minimize or reduce pain in patients and produce greater satisfaction.
Many measures have been tried to alleviate the discomfort associated with an injection of the anesthetic, such as the use of a topical anesthetic, heating the anesthesia solution to body temperature, the use of low-level lasers, among others.
One of the alternative measures that have been introduced is the CCLAD systems which in English stands for computer controlled local anesthesia delivery systems. These systems dispense a constant stream of local anesthetic.
Within the CCLAD systems, anesthesia with The Wand STA system is one of them. This technique is used with a wand which has a tip with a needle that is inserted into the periodontal ligament, therefore it is a type of computer controlled intraligamentous local anesthesia. Ensuring a slow, controlled, constant and comfortable injection of anesthetic.
This system is equipped with the STA function, which stands for anesthesia in a single tooth, so that it allows a single tooth to be anesthetized with less numbness of the surrounding tissues and teeth.
The speed mode is selected providing an anesthetic inoculation of 0.005 milliliters per second. As the needle is inserted into the tissue, the system provides continuous visual and auditory feedback to the dentist.
The Wand STA injection piece has a series of various needle colors available to the dentist, which correspond to a different gauge and size. The green ones are the extra short ones which have a caliber of 30G and are 12 millimeters, the brown ones have a caliber of 30G and are 25 millimeters, finally the long ones are blue, with a caliber of 27G and 32 millimeters .
The Wand STA system has a visual pressure detection scale composed of a series of lights, these are orange, yellow and green. Orange lights indicate minimal pressure, yellow light moderate pressure and green lights indicate moderate pressure on the periodontal tissue.
Thus, with this system there is a precise control of the cause and the pressure of the anesthetic, which makes the injection of anesthesia much more comfortable. With this type of system, less anxiety is induced in patients than with others since the sensation is less unpleasant and is hardly noticeable.
