Injectable anaesthetic suppliers Septodont have issued a statement in response to the current shortage of dental local anaesthetics in the UK. The company would like to assure all their UK and Irish customers, both dental professionals and dental and pharmaceutical trade, that they are totally committed to supplying anaesthetic cartridges on time and in sufficient volume to meet market demands.

Septodont has increased its annual production capacity in the UK and Ireland from 450,000 boxes of 50 2.2 ml cartridges to 750,000 boxes for their popular cartridges Lidocaine with adrenaline, Mepivacaine Plain and Articaine. They are confident that they can supply the anaesthetic needed by the market as and when required. In the statement, Managing Director Brian Reader said 'Deliveries to the trade distributors are occurring at least once per week and we would urge dentists to purchase their anaesthetic in reasonable quantities in order to ensure even distribution and allow normality of supply to be achieved quickly. There is no need for dentists to stockpile anaesthetic.' For assistance with any anaesthetic sourcing problems, please email source-it@septodont.co.uk or call 0800 435 155. The full statement is available to read on the BDA website at www.bda.org.

Reader response number 60