Effectiveness of nasopalatine nerve block for anesthesia of maxillary central incisors after failure of the anterior superior alveolar nerve block technique

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of nasopalatine nerve block for anesthesia of maxillary central incisors after failure of the anterior superior alveolar nerve (ASAN) block technique. Secondarily, the possible innervation of the maxillary central incisors by the nasopalatine nerve was also investigated. Twenty-seven healthy, young adult volunteers (age: 17-26 years; gender: 9 males and 18 females) were enrolled in this study. All participants were undergraduate dental students of the University of Vale do Rio Verde de Três Corações. The volunteers had the anterior superior alveolar nerves anesthetized and a thermal sensitivity test (cold) was performed on the maxillary central incisors. The volunteers that responded positively to cold stimulus received a nasopalatine nerve block and the thermal sensitivity test was repeated. All participants were anesthetized by a single operator. Three patients presented sensitivity after both types of bilateral blocks and were excluded from the percentage calculations. In the remaining 24 patients, 16 had their maxillary central incisors anesthetized by the anterior superior alveolar block and 8 remained with sensitivity after the ASAN block. All these 8 patients had their maxillary central incisors successfully anesthetized by the nasopalatine block. In this study, 33.3% of the subjects had the innervation of one or both maxillary central incisors derived from the nasopalatine nerve, whilst most subjects (66.7%) had such teeth innervated by the anterior superior alveolar nerve. The nasopalatine nerve block was effective in anesthetizing the maxillary central incisors when the anterior superior alveolar nerve block failed.