Fig. 3. Antimicrobial effectiveness of 10% lidocaine against oral microflora from the buccal mucosa of 22 volunteers; exposure time of 1, 2, and 3 min. Antimicrobial score: 4 = >95% bacterial reduction, 3 = 60–95% bacterial reduction, 2 = 40–60% bacterial reduction, 1 = 5–40% bacterial reduction, 0 = <5% bacterial reduction.