Effects of local anesthesia on substance P and CGRP content of the human dental pulp.

The aim of the study was to determine immunoreactive Substance P (iSP) and immunoreactive calcitonin gene-related peptide (iCGRP) content in the human dental pulp and whether local anesthesia has an effect on the neuropeptide content. Dental pulps were obtained from patients, who underwent surgical extraction of all 4 impacted wisdom teeth under general isoflurane gas anesthesia. There was a very high interindividual variation in tissue content, with small variation in levels found in teeth from the same patient. Pulps obtained from lower teeth without local anesthesia contained an average of 131 +/- 62 fmol/mg protein of iCGRP and 15 +/- 9 fmol/mg iSP (n = 10). With additional mandibular block anesthesia the values were 194 +/- 71 fmol/mg iCGRP (statistically significant, p = 0.0356, Mann-Whitney-rank-sum-test) and 12 +/- 3.6 fmol/mg iSP. The results suggest that local anesthesia attenuates neuropeptide release in the human dental pulp during surgical extraction.