Psychomotor Responses of Dentists Using Nitrous Oxide - Oxygen Psychosedation.

摘要

The psychomotor effects of nitrous-oxide oxygen psychosedation has been studied in medical student volunteers not undergoing any kind of treatment and in dental patients both children and adults. These studies, using nitrous oxide in concentrations of 25-35%, concluded that psychomotor impairments, as measured by the tests, were minimal at those concentrations and were rapidly reversed following a 3-5 minute post-treatment oxygenation period. Recent attention has been directed at the effects of nitrous oxide on the dentist who may be exposed to waste gases for a prolonged period of time. Because of the absence of data on potential impairments of the psychomotor abilities of dentists who use nitrous oxide, this study investigated their psychomotor responses during the course of a treatment period in which nitrous oxide was administered to a patient. The findings for dentists in this study are essentially similar to those reported previously on the effects of nitrous oxide on psychomotor activities during and following dental treatment. One reason for the similarity may be that all of these studies involved investigation of psychomotor abilities during one treatment session. The effects of prolonged exposure to nitrous oxide requires additional study to clarify those effects if, in fact, there are any.