Dr. Scott Dickinson explains how buffering reduces injection pain, speeds the onset of local anesthesia, and makes it more profound.
SPONSORED CONTENTDr. Scott Dickinson
Dr. Scott Dickinson owns 4 Aspen Dental practices in Pensacola and Pace, Florida. He is a national KOL and faculty member at Pensacola State College, where he also lectures on minimal sedation protocols, nitrous oxide sedation, and local anesthetics. Dr. Dickinson is an Army veteran and former flight surgeon who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine.
Buffering an anesthetic by adding sodium bicarbonate raises the pH and enhances the onset of anesthesia, providing significant benefits to dentists and patients. But until recently, Dr. Dickinson found the process cumbersome. The few available products were expensive and required multiple steps, and keeping sodium bicarbonate stable during DIY efforts was challenging. Here, Dr. Dickinson explains the benefits of buffering and why he believes the new BufferPro™ changes the game.
Seamless Implementation: Why Use BufferPro™
I started using BufferPro™ this February when it became available, and its implementation in my office has been seamless. I’ve found BufferPro™ to be by far the easiest system I’ve come across to buffer local anesthetics. The way BufferPro™ is packaged keeps sodium bicarbonate stable. It looks like a simple foil pouch, but the inside is pressurized with carbon dioxide, which stabilizes the sodium bicarbonate for two years.
I also find it simple to use. You just put a capsule on the end of a local anesthetic cartridge, and you’re ready to work. In my experience, BufferPro™ makes buffering easy.
Buffering Benefits
Typically, when you inject patients, their body needs to buffer the anesthetic so the active drug can pass across the nerve membrane to block the feeling. That’s the part buffering lets you skip. The average onset for local anesthesia is five to six minutes. I’ll ask patients after ten minutes if they’re feeling numb. If they say no, I know I missed and have to go in again.
With buffering, I ask if they’re feeling numb after just 60 seconds, and they’ll tell me, “Yep, I’m starting to feel tingling in my lip and tongue.” I don’t need it to kick in that fast; I usually go see another patient or sign a chart, but it’s a big confidence booster. I know my local anesthetic is already working, and this is going to be a successful visit.
When I tell other doctors how quickly buffered anesthetics kick in, they roll their eyes and say, "No way!" But it does, especially with block anesthesia. When you buffer local anesthetic, more of the anesthetic is available to get the patient numb.
Making a Good Product Better
I’ve found BufferPro™ changes the way we can help our patients. Why not take the local anesthetic experience, which is a hurdle in every dental office, and make it a great experience? To me, BufferPro™ truly is a practice changer and is the most significant change or addition to local anesthetics, probably since the 1970s.
I buffer every day and think it’s something every dentist should do. Buffering takes a good product we know is safe —a local anesthetic, which is our bread and butter and biggest necessity —and makes it better in every way.
