NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new dental anesthetic promises to be significantly more effective than currently used preparations, according to the product's inventor.

The standard local anesthesia used during dental procedures fails to completely numb the region being worked on in up to two thirds of cases, explains Dr. Al Reader of Ohio State University in Columbus. Researchers had tried putting more anesthetic into the formula, but without achieving improved results.

Reader decided to use mannitol, or sugar alcohol, because he had read that this substance helped doctors deliver chemotherapy more effectively to cancer patients. The mannitol in his new anesthetic relaxes the protective covering of the nerves, allowing the active ingredient, lidocaine, to enter.

"Using the sugar alcohol makes local anesthesia more effective," Reader stated. "This would mean the patient will not feel a thing during a dental procedure such as drilling."

The researcher tested his new formula on more than 200 people to find the most effective combination of mannitol and lidocaine. The final product uses about twice as much lidocaine as the currently standard dental anesthesia, and produces complete numbness in about 90% of patients.