Background: Local anesthetics form the mainstay of pain control techniques in dentistry. In literature, there are many studies reported that the superiority of articaine over other local anesthetic agents. Hence; the present study was undertaken for comparing the clinical efficacy of 4% articaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine over 2% lidocaine in 1:80,000 epinephrine in patients undergoing dental extractions. Materials & methods: This in vivo study was carried out on 60 patients to compare the onset and duration of anesthesia, pain at the time of injection and extraction, and complications in the postanesthetic period of 4% articaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine and 2% lignocaine with 1:80,000 epinephrine in extraction of maxillary premolars for orthodontic considerations. Visual analog scale (VAS) was used to evaluate pain. Paired t test was used to evaluate and compare the values obtained. Result: The mean time of onset of anesthesia came out to be 38.44 ± 27.95 seconds and 84.42 ± 29.50 s in articaine group and lignocaine group respectively. This difference was statistically significant (P < 0.001) with the time of onset being slower in lidocaine group. In articaine group, the mean duration of anesthesia was 134.52 ± 46.81 and 92.30 ± 44.58 min with the lignocaine group. There is a statistically significant difference (P < 0.001) showing that articaine has longer duration of action compared to lignocaine group. Both the anaesthetic groups did not show any post operative complications, which was calculated using VAS scale during the post extraction period. Conclusion: Articaine HCL has a faster onset and longer acting anesthetic action as compared with lignocaine HCL. Key words: Local anaesthesia, Extraction, Articaine