"Septocaine" and articaine confusion

Dental Didactics presents a thorough dental CE course covering all aspects of Septocaine (articaine HCl) Septocaine CE course To clear up some confusion expressed by many readers, here is a brief answer: The popular dental local anesthetic "Septocaine" is actually the trademark name of Septodont's 4% formulation of the generic Articaine HCl. The names are synonymous for the same identical local anesthetic. Septocaine (Articane) is currently the most widely used dental local anesthetic in Europe and is enjoying increasing popularity in the United States thanks to it's ability to achieve longer and more profound anesthesia compared to Lidocaine. Many dental practitioners employ it to achieve profound local anesthesia in the mandible utilizing local infiltration techniques alone, without resort to regional mandibular blocks. It is not utilized as frequently in maxillary applications as the anesthetic effect can be prolonged and the anesthesia can spread beyond the immediate tooth area. The prolonged anesthesia is also a drawback in pedodontic applications. Septocaine (Articaine) is a unique amide-type local anesthetic, distinct from the ester-type anesthetics utilized in the past such as Novocain (Procaine) to which patients often refer in a generic manner when referencing local anethetics. Septocaine (Articaine) was developed in Germany in 1976 and received FDA approval recently for use in the United States. For a fuller understanding of Septocaine (Articaine), its biochemical structure, properties, applications, and clinical considerations our full CE course on Septocaine (for 2 hours of dental continuing education credit) is available on our website at Dental Didactics CE