Table 2. Characteristics of included studies.
| Item | Study | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| Author | Aggarwal, et al. [35] | Ghoddusi J, et al. [41] | Saatchi M, et al. [42] | Sharma R, et al. [43] |
| Year of publication | 2010 | 2018 | 2018 | 2018 |
| Methods / Study design | Double-blinded, prospective randomized controlled trial | A parallelgrouped, randomized, double-blind clinical trial | A randomized clinical trial, prospective study | A randomized clinical study |
| No. of groups | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Sample size | 102 subjects, assigned into four groups: Gp#1 = 27, Gp#2 = 26, Gp#3 = 25 & Gp#4 = 24 |
80 subjects, assigned into two groups: Gp#1 = 40 & Gp#2 = 40 |
150 subjects, assigned into three groups: Gp#1 = 50, Gp#2 = 50 & Gp#3 = 50 |
120 subjects, assigned into two groups: Gp#1 = 30, Gp#2 = 30, Gp#3 = 30 & Gp#4 = 30 |
| Age range | 21–32 years | 18–50 years | More than 18 years | Average age 30 year |
| Gender | Both male & female | Not mentioned | Both male & female | Both male & female |
| Intervention | GGMNB, VA, BL and IANB techniques | GGMNB and IANB techniques | GGMNB, IANB and GGMNB+IAN B techniques | GGMNB, VA and IANB with buccal infiltration and conventional IANB techniques |
| Outcome assessment scale | The pain was assessed byusing “Heft-Parker visual analog scale”. The anesthetic success was noted as “none” or “weak/mild” pain | The pain was assessed by using “Visual analog scale”. VAS score 1–3 was labelled as mild pain, 4–6 as moderate, 7–9 as severe pain and 0 as no pain | The pain was assessed by using “HP-VAS”. The anesthesia success was described as the HP-VAS scores “0” without pain or with mild pain “1–54 mm” | The pain was assessed by using “Heft-Parker visual analog scale”. The pain scale was classified into four categories that “0” for no pain, “1–54 mm” as “faint, weak, or mild pain”, “55–114 mm” as “moderate pain” and “114 mm” as “strong, intense and maximum possible pain” |
| Anesthetic efficacy (GGMNB vs IANB) | 52% vs 36% | 50% vs 42.5% | 40% vs 44% | 66.7% vs 46.7% |
BL, buccal-plus-lingual infiltrations; GGMNB, Gow-Gates mandibular nerve block; Gp, group; IANB, inferior alveolar nerve block; VA, Vazirani-Akinosi.