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Sulfite allergy

04/02/2007

Question:

My mother has an allergy to sulfites, which dental anesthesics can she safely use? Most seem to contain this in the perservative. She has already had cardiac type reactions to some.

Answer:

All dental local anesthetics that contain epinephrine contain metabisulfite which is an antioxidant to prevent breakdown of this ingredient. Depending on the nature of the allergic reaction, this may or may not be an issue. Your mother’s allergist would know and she could be tested with various “dental” local anesthetics, like 2% lidocaine with epinephrine or 4% articaine with epinephrine with a small skin wheal to see if there is a reaction.

There are other dental local anesthetics without epinephrine and without sulfites. The two commonly used ones are 3% mepivicaine and 4% prilocaine. The duration of local anesthesia is somewhat shorter with these agents but most dental procedures, except for very extensive ones, can be comfortably completed with these drugs for surgical pain control. For longer procedures, additional injections can be used and for very lengthy procedures, general anesthesia can be used especially if your mother is in good health and not frail.

For more information:

Go to the Dental Anesthesia health topic.