Evaluation of the effect of dental treatment on the autonomic nervous system by power spectral analysis of heart rate variability

Abstract

We investigated the relationship between dental treatment stress and function of the autonomic nervous system during dental anesthesia and impression taking The procedures were administered to five healthy volunteers, once each week for a total of three times We analyzed the frequency of the R-R interval of the electrocardiogram, and calculated the integrated power values based on the obtained power spectrum for the respective components in the low frequency bands (LF 0 04-0 15 Hz) and high frequency bands (HF 015-0 40 Hz) The ratio of LF to HF was used as an index of sympathetic nervous system function This ratio decreased with repeated impression taking, but not with repetition of dental anesthesia We found that different procedures produced different stresses