Abstract
There are many stressful elements during dental treatment. It is important to know the influence of this stress. Many studies have investigated the stress from the psychological point, behavioral point and physiological point. It is, however, unknow what the behavior caused by psychological changing means from the viewpoint of physiology. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of behavior caused by anxiety and the nasal skin temperature. The subjects of this research were the 96 pediatric patients (47 boys and 49 girls). The anxieties were measured by Japanese version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children and the Dental Fear Survey modified by Yoshida. The behavior and the progress of the dental procedures were observed with two video monitoring cameras. The nasal skin temperature was measured and recorded using a thermograph. The results showed that the anxiety was reflected on behavior during dental treatment and a relationship was between the state of anxiety and the nasal skin temperature. It was also recognized that behavior was related to the nasal skin temperature. It was found the relationship of the movement of the upper half of the body and the nasal skin temperature was shown in particular. The possibility was suggested that behavior during dental treatment worked to cope with stress and it reduced the coefficient of variation of nasal skin temperature.
