What are common dental anesthetics?

Several choices: We have quite a few in our arsenal. Just to name a few....Lidocaine, prilocaine, marcaine, articaine, and several more. They all have slightly different properties in duration and their ability to get you numb. Some also have Epinephrine while others don't.

Local anesthetics: We have topical anesthetics ( numbing gel), local anesthetics ( novacaine) and orally take pain pills. The most common dental anesthetic used in dental offices are a varity of local anesthetics such as lidocaine, pilocanine or septocaine, etc.

Many options: Anesthetics are used in medicine and dentistry and not exclusive to just dentistry. The choices are many with many using Lidocaine but other anesthetics are used as well.

Amides: Most dental anesthetics used today are local amide anesthetics. Really, no one uses the old ester local anesthetic 'Novacaine' any longer, but many people still refer to all local dental anesthetics as 'Novacaine'. Amides have much less allergic response on the population, so they are much safer and still do a superb job of providing profound anesthesia.

Lidocaine 2%: is the most common local anesthetic that dentists use. Lidocaine is a practical, safe and efficient.