Local anesthesia is avital part of the daily routines for a dentist. The recently available local anesthetic agents are efficient in providing high quality nerve blockade in a wide variety of clinical circumstances. There are many local anesthetics available of which the most frequently used is lidocaine but as our understanding of chemistry is expanding newer and safer chemicals for providing anesthesia are also emerging. The aim of this paper is to review the use of articaine in dentistry. The literature review shows articaine is well tolerated and useful local anesthetic agent than lidocaine. Certain added advantages like shorter time of onset, longer duration of action and greater diffusion property makes it an ideal anesthetic agent to be used in dentistry

Articaine, Lidocaine, Local anesthetics,Pharmacology, Drug toxicity, Dentistry