Effect of Recollection on Pain and Discomfort when Visual and Auditory Sensations are Stimulated during Dental Treatment

Abstract

It has been reported that a patient's uncasiness and apprchension increase during dental treatment from a recollection of pain and disconfort when the senses of seeing and hearing are stimulated. The present study was therefore undertaken to determine the effect of blocking of stimulation on emotional changes. The subjects were 7 students from the dental department of our university who understood the project and showed a willingness to participate. Their internal behavier fluctuations (PL; plethy-smograme of the car lobe) at the time of infiltration anesthesia and sham cutting were analyzed. They were also given a questionnaire.
The following four techniques were employed. To block the visual and auditory sensations, some were given music to listen to over earphones (hearing only), others watched enjoyable videos employing virtual vision (seeing only), others watched enjoyable videos with sound, chosen by us or by themselves, employing virtual vision (hearing and seeing). There was also a control which employed none of these techniques.
A summary of the results follows.
1) Obsevation of internal behavior revealed that the PL change rate at the time of infiltration anesthesia and sham cutting was highest in the control. There was a tendency for the PL rate to be lower in the groups which used their senses of hearing and seeing together than those who used one or the other sense separately.
2) Observation on the scores of the questionaires indicating the degree of pain and discomfort at the time of infiltration anesthesia and sham cutting revealed a tendency towards lower scores for those who used their senses of hearing and seeing together than for those who used one or the other separately.
The conclusion from the above findings is that recollection of pain and discomfort through the senses of hearing and seeing can effect the degree of the actual pain pain and discomfort during dental treatment, but that these adverse emotional feelings can be decreased by blocking the stimulation of the visual and auditory sensations.