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Evans G, Nusstein J et al. J Endodontol 2008; 34: 389–393

Previous studies, contrary to anecdote, have shown that the success of local analgesia with articaine is not superior to lidocaine for both inferior dental block and infiltration analgesia. The aim of this study was to confirm or refute this observation. Amongst other measurements, pulpal analgesia (no response from an electric pulp tester at maximum output) in both maxillary lateral incisor and first molar teeth, was measured in each of 80 subjects acting as their own controls, following the infiltration of either one cartridge of 4% articaine or 2% lidocaine, each containing 1:100,000 adrenaline. Articaine had a significantly higher success rate than lidocaine for lateral incisors (88% v 62% respectively) but there was no difference for first molar teeth (78% v 73%). Successful pulpal analgesia, regardless of agent, was considerably lower in this study than in others.