RESEARCH ARTICLE
Allergic Reactions to Local Anesthetics in Dental Patients: Analysis of Intracutaneous and Challenge Tests
Yumiko Tomoyasu1, Kazuo Mukae2, Michiyo Suda2, Tomoko Hayashi2, Minako Ishii2, Mai Sakaguchi2, Yoshihisa Watanabe2, Ayako Jinzenji2, Yukiko Arai2, Hitoshi Higuchi3, Shigeru Maeda1, Takuya Miyawaki2, *
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2011Volume: 5
First Page: 146
Last Page: 149
Publisher ID: TODENTJ-5-146
DOI: 10.2174/1874210601105010146
Article History:
Received Date: 10/5/2011Revision Received Date: 25/7/2011
Acceptance Date: 27/7/2011
Electronic publication date: 27/8/2011
Collection year: 2011

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Some dental patients have histories of adverse reactions to local anesthesia. The aim of the present study was to investigate the frequency of allergy to local anesthetics of dental patients who had histories of adverse reactions to local anesthesia based on the results of allergy tests in our institute over a period of 5 years. We investigated the past medical records of dental patients retrospectively, and twenty patients were studied. Three of the 20 showed a positive or false-positive reaction in the intracutaneous test, and one patient showed a false-positive reaction in the challenge test. Our results suggest that the frequency of allergy to local anesthetics is low even if patients have histories of adverse reactions to local anesthesia. However, allergy tests of local anesthetics should be performed in patients in whom it is uncertain whether they are allergic.