Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

January 24-30, 201110 Event Review United Kingdom Edition O n October 22nd 2010, DENTSPLY Marketing Director Gary Marvin sat down to chair a press conference on the re-release of Citanest – the local dental anaesthetic that had proved one of the company’s big- gest success stories. The release had caused quite a stir, as the product had proved a favourite amongst dental practitioners for over a decade. The point of this press conference, said Gary, was to reassure the dental industry that Citanest was back for good. The Citanest story began in 2000 when DENTSPLY acquired the licence to produce it from the pharmaceutical company As- traZeneca. DENTSPLY quickly established the product as a mar- ket leader but when manufac- turing was moved to a new site, supply was rapidly outpaced by demand. This served to reiter- ate the popularity of the anaes- thetic, as the Citanest-shaped gap in the market proved hard to fill. Containing felypressin in- stead of adrenaline, Citanest is unique in the world of dental anaesthetics as it can be safe- ly administered to all patients without the risk of cardiac prob- lems and, as it does not contain latex, is also the ideal choice to eliminate the risk of aller- gic reaction. Just as effective as lidocaine-based anaesthetics but 40 per cent less toxic and with excellent tolerance lev- els, Citanest, with its patented active ingredient octapressin, is a safe and reliable choice for any dentist. Forced to switch back to lido- caine based products or plain solutions containing no vaso- constrictors, many dentists were initially chagrined at the loss of their favourite product. It quickly became clear, however, that the reason for this sudden lack of Citanest came not out of a prob- lem with the product, but a problem with the manufacturing plant. Once dentists understood that the delay in re-releasing the product was due to DENT- SPLY’s determination to ensure complete patient safety and qualitycontrol,thebattleformore supplies became a waiting game, as practitioners and suppliers sat back and counted the days until Citanest was once more on the shelves. That day came a little over four months ago, when Citanest was officially re-released. Not wanting to rush into things and risk disappointment, DENTSPLY held off on its press conference and set about securing an initial two dealers for the product, so that the team could be certain of keeping a close eye on supplies and making sure that stocks never ran low. With stocks of Ci- tanest plentiful and the product assured to be of the highest qual- ity, DENTSPLY could release them for the profession, along with its accompanying acces- sory, the self-aspirating anaes- thetic syringe. The key to the administration of local anaesthetic is the avoid- ance of blood vessels during the injection. This has proved prob- lematic for many years as, in testing to make sure no blood vessels have been hit by aspi- rating (withdrawing the bung a little and reinserting it), the den- tist can, with a slight shake of the hand, accidentally re-enter in the wrong place, with poten- tially serious effects. With the self-aspirating syringe however, aspiration requires little move- ment from the practitioner. This product has had excellent feed- back from practitioners and, combined with the unique prop- erties of Citanest, provides one of the safest available methods of anaesthetising dental patients. DENTSPLY are also reintro- ducing Xylocaine, which is an effective, highly local, tradi- tional anaesthetic with a better tolerance rate than many other brands. Xylocaine will be avail- able alongside Citanest at com- petitive prices to celebrate the re-launch. The excitement running through the industry surround- ing the re-release of Citanest is tangible and people from all over the dental community have expressed their gratitude at the news that this unique and outstanding product is now available in plentiful supply. Gary Marvin, in the wake of his press conference, summed it up succinctly: “I hope that dentists can now breathe a sigh of relief”. For more information, or to book an appointment with your local DENTSPLY Product Spe- cialist, call: 0800 072 3313 or visit www.DENTSPLY.co.uk DT Dentists give three cheers for the return of Citanest® Dentsply celebrates the relaunch of popular anaesthetic ‘The key to the administration of local an- aesthetic is the avoidance of blood vessels during the injection’ March - August 2011