Hemodynamic and Plasma Catecholamine Responses to Routine Restorative Dental Care

摘要

Dental anxiety and stress are experienced by many persons. Despite this major health problem, little study has been done to measure the body's physiologic response to routine dental procedures. The administration of epinephrine-containing local dental anesthesia or the placement of epinephrine-impregnated gingival retraction cords causes the plasma epinephrine concentration to increase with minimal hemodynamic consequences in normal subjects. In nonsedated patients who are given dental anesthesia with 3 cartridges of lidocaine with epinephrine before extraction of third molars, heart rate, cardiac output, plasma norepinephrine, and plasma epinephrine levels increase. This study measures the hemodynamic and plasma catecholamine responses of healthy subjects to the various components of the most common dental procedure associated with stress, the restoration of a carious mandibular posterior tooth.