LEVO-ARTERENOL (LEVOPHED) AS A VASOCONSTRICTOR IN LOCAL ANESTHETIC SOLUTIONS

¹ College of Physicians and Surgeons, School of Dentistry, San Francisco, California

Solutions containing arterenol gave adequate anesthesia in a higher percentage of patients than did solutions containing either epinephrine or nordefrin in the concentrations used in this study. However, this higher incidence of adequate anesthesia was obtained to some degree, at least, at the expense of a possibly higher incidence of side effects. This study definitely indicates that arterenol is a vasoconstrictor of considerable merit, and can undoubtedly take its place along with epinephrine and nordefrin as a vasconstrictor suitable for local dental anesthetics. When all the various criteria of a good vasoconstrictor are considered at once, the superiority of arterenol over epinephrine and nordefrin is not universal for all phases of its action.