Anesthesia or anaesthesia has traditionally meant the condition of having the perception of pain and other sensations blocked. This allows patients to undergo surgery and other procedures without the distress and pain they would otherwise experience.

Nowadays modern denistry use all the methods for anesthesia in order to reduce pain when any type of surgical intervention is prescribed. Most often dentists are using the following clinical techniques:

Surface anesthesia - application of local anesthetic spray, solution or cream to the skin or a mucous membrane. The effect is short lasting and is limited to the area of contact.

Infiltration anesthesia - injection of local anesthetic into the tissue to be anesthetized. Surface and infiltration anesthesia are collectively topical anesthesia.

Peripheral nerve blocks - injection of local anesthetic in the vicinity of a peripheral nerve to anesthetize that nerve's area of innervation.