2013 Volume 56 Issue 5 Pages 431-441
Purpose: To provide safe periodontal therapy, it is important to understand the systemic influence of such therapy. Therefore, we developed a novel system for evaluating autonomic nervous activity during dental treatment. This study examined the effectiveness of the system for monitoring vital signs, and in so doing, for assessing autonomic nervous activity and evaluating the characteristics of variability in autonomic nervous activity during initial periodontal therapy among healthy volunteers in their twenties. Methods: Blood pressure, heart rate, arterial oxygen saturation and autonomic nervous activity were measured in 10 patients during oral examination, periodontal pocket examination, ultrasonic scaling and impression-taking using the novel system. Autonomic nervous activity was evaluated as follows :R-R intervals of heart rate were divided into high-frequency (HF) and low-frequency (LF) components by power spectrum analysis. HF reflects parasympathetic nervous activity and LF/HF reflects sympathetic nervous activity. Questionnaires concerning the system were completed after treatment. Results: Compared with the resting state, blood pressure, heart rate and arterial oxygen saturation values did not differ significantly among treatments. Conversely, sympathetic nervous activity values tended to increase when sitting, immediately before dental treatment and in the first half of dental treatment. This result suggests that the emotional stress may have a larger influence on autonomic nervous activity than the noxious stimulus during initial periodontal therapy in healthy young adults. Conclusion: This novel system can be used to easily and non-invasively evaluate changes in autonomic nervous activity without stress during initial periodontal therapy. Sympathetic nervous activity values tended to increase when sitting just before treatment and in the first half of the initial periodontal therapy in healthy volunteers in their twenties.
