Pressures Created by Dental Injections

In routine dental practice, anesthetic solutions are injected into tissue sites of widely different distensibilities, under a variety of pressures. The purpose of the present study, during simulated dental practice, was to determine the maximum injection pressures obtained by clinicians during injections in dogs. Regular aspirating dental syringes were used together with dental anesthetic cartridges filled with isotonic saline. Maximum operator injection pressures ranged from 330 to 660 psi (17,061-34,122 mmHg). Those injection sites that were least distensible gave the highest maximum injection pressures: interosseous (21,559 mmHg); incisive papilla (18,224 mmHg); periodontal (17,630 mmHg); hard palate (11,322 mmHg); and intrapulpal (8918 mmHg). More distensible tissue sites gave much lower pressures. The data indicate that dental injection pressures vary widely from several hundred mmHg to several hundred psi, depending on the clinician's physical effort and the distensibility of the tissue.