Abstract
A study was conducted on 27 adult males to determine the effects of abdominal respiration on sympathic artivily during dental procedures. One week prior to the experiment, blood was removed from the middle subcutaneous arm vein for estimation of the resuing plasma concentrations of adrenaline and noradrenaline using HPLC. Eight subjects were asked to take 6 consecutive breaths using their diaphragm abdominal museles once on each of 7 days before the experiment. The remainder was given either an anxiolytic (lorazepam, 0.5mg p. o., 9 subjects) or saline vehicle (10 subjects) 60 min prior to the experiment.
For the experiment, the subjects were seated in a dental chair, and blood samples were taken from the middle subcutaneous arm vein, 10 min before and 10 min after injection of 0.3m1 saline into the bucco-gingival part of the right maxillary premolars, and again for determination of adrenaline and noradrenaline concentrations. The first group was also asked to report the breathing exercise 5 min before the buccogingival injection.
The level of adrenaline was higher in the abdominal respiration group than in the controls one week before the experiment and before and after the injections, but not to a signifcant extent.
The noradrenaline concentration was higher in the controls after injection, but was reduced in the abdominal respiration group, and almost the same as that in the group given the anxiolytic.
