The effects of lidocaine or a lidocaine-bupivacaine mixture administered into the infraorbital canal in dogs.

OBJECTIVE To determine the onset, duration, and extent of regional nerve blocks performed by administration of lidocaine or lidocaine-bupivacaine into the infraorbital canal in dogs. ANIMALS 6 healthy hound-type dogs. PROCEDURES Under general anesthesia, stimulating needles were inserted into the gingiva dorsolateral to both maxillary canine (MC) teeth and the maxillary fourth premolar (MPM4) and second molar (MM2) teeth on the treatment side. A reflex-evoked muscle potential (REMP) was recorded from the digastricus muscle after noxious electrical stimulation at each site. After baseline measurements, 1 mL of 2% lidocaine solution or a 2% lidocaine-0.5% bupivacaine mixture (0.5 mL each) was injected into the infraorbital canal (at approx two-thirds of the canal length measured rostrocaudally). The REMPs were recorded for up to 7 hours. The REMP data for the contralateral (untreated control) canine tooth were used to normalize results for all stimulation sites. RESULTS With both treatments, nerve block for MC teeth on the treated side was achieved by 5 (n = 5 dogs) or 10 (1) minutes after injection, but nerve block for ipsilateral MPM4 and MM2 teeth was successful for only 3 dogs and 1 dog, respectively. Mean duration of nerve blocks for MC teeth was 120 and 277 minutes following injection of lidocaine and lidocaine-bupivacaine, respectively. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Local anesthesia, as performed in this study, successfully blocked innervation of MC teeth, but results for MPM4 and MM2 teeth were inconsistent. This specific technique should not be used during tooth extractions caudal to the MC teeth.