Abstract
Interest in home-bound geriatric dental patients has grown during the last ten years. On the other hand, the elderly are still at high risk to circulatory disease.
We studied 34 home-bound dental patients (21 females, 13 males), who live in Toyonaka city. They are from 65 to 94 years of age. We divided them into 2 groups: those with circulatory disease, and those with other chronic diseases.
Both groups of subjects were subdivided into 2 groups: in daily living and under dental treatment. We observed their daily health judged by a basic physical list for a week before dental treatment. We investigated the change (means) and fluctuation (max-min) of hemodynamic parameters (systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and heart rate).
The results were as follows:
1. The changes of hemodynamic parameters were not significantly different between the group with circulatory disease and the group with other chronic diseases.
2. The fluctuation of systolic blood pressure in circulatory disease slightly increased during dental treatment.
3. The fluctuation of heart rate in the circulatory disease group significantly increased during dental treatment.
These results suggested that the mental stress of dental treatment of the home-bound elderly with circulatory disease markedly influenced their systolic blood pressure and heart rate.
