Retrieving a Broken Dental Needle Using a Minimally Invasive Technique

An interesting article titled “Use of Intraoperative Navigation for Minimally Invasive Retrieval of a Broken Dental Needle” appears in the 2015 Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and written by Kyle M. Stein (vol. 73, pp. 1911-1916). The article describes retrieving a broken dental needle using a Medtronic StealthStation S7 surgical navigation system. The use of disposable needles in dentistry has rendered the occurrence of needle breakage an extremely rare event. However, this complication continues to occur, and can be caused by improper technique, inappropriate armamentarium, and unexpected patient movement. I have described a few cases of this occuring on the wisdom teeth complications page at http://www.teethremoval.com/complications.html. In almost every case, needle breakage occurs when an inferior alveolar nerve block is administered with 30-gauge short needles. In the article a case of a 13 year old female had a broken dental … Read more