Scaling and root planing, using hand or powered instrumentation, usually requires local anesthesia for completeness of treatment and patient comfort. Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the healing of patients with moderate periodontal disease (4-6 mm probing depths and explorer detectable subgingival calculus) when quadrant anesthetic was delivered by computer-assisted device compared to aspirating syringe. Methods: 20 healthy adults diagnosed with moderate chronic periodontitis and moderate to heavy subgingival calculus were enrolled in a randomized crossover trial, stratified by gender. One trained and blinded examiner assessed clinical parameters at baseline and one month after scalings were completed. 2% Lidocaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine was used for half-mouth scaling treatments. Computer-controlled anesthetic injections (Wand[TM], Milestone Scientific) were the IA, LB, PSA, AMSA (Friedman and Hochman 1997). Syringe injections were IA, LB, PSA, MSA, ASA, GP, NP. Results: Preliminary results on 7 subjects revealed mean PD at baseline for the treatment group was 3.8±0.5, CAL 4.2±0.8, and the control PD at baseline 3.6±0.4, CAL 4.1±0.7. After approximately one month healing time, PD for the treatment group was 3.3±0.3, CAL 3.6±0.6, and the control PD was 3.1±0.4 and CAL 3.5±09. Both treatment and control groups improved significantly from baseline after S/RP, p<0.05, and there was no significant difference between the groups, p<0.05. Conclusions: Preliminary results show that patients with moderate periodontal disease treated by quadrant S/RP using computer-controlled local anesthetic delivery heal similarly to those treated using conventional syringe anesthesia. Results regarding patient perception and acceptance of computer-controlled local anesthetic delivery are presented in a companion abstract. (Supported by a grant from Milestone Scientific, Inc.)

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