Administration of the Anesthetic

There are two important goals one must accomplish during anesthetic administration; control and limit movement of the patient’s head and body and communicate with the patient to draw their attention away from the minor discomfort that may be felt during the injection process.

Most clinicians prefer to keep the uncapped needle out of the patient’s line of sight. Do not ask the child to close his/her eyes as that is usually a sign to the child that something bad or painful is about to occur. Instead, the assistant passes the uncapped syringe behind the patient’s head (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Handling of local anesthetic syringe out of sight of the patient

Figure 7. Handling of local anesthetic syringe out of sight of the patient