Effectiveness of Electronic Dental Anesthesia for Restorative Care In
Effectivenessof electronic dental anesthesia for restorativecare in children Shiu-yinCho, BDS, FRACDS Bernadette K. Drummond, BDS,MS, PhD, FRACDS MichaelH. Anderson,BSc, MBChB, DipObs, Dip AV Med, Dip IH, MRNZCGPSheila Williams BSc(Hons) Abstract mission. The gate control theory states that activity Theeffectiveness of electronic dental anesthesia(EDA) generated by myelinated primary afferent fibers (the A fibers) inhibits the transmission of activity in the for pain control duringrestorative procedureswas compared with local anestheticinjection (LA) in 32 children aged small unmyelinatedprimary afferent fibers (the C fi- bers),6 acting via inhibitory circuits in the dorsal horn. to 12years. Eachchild selected had two antimereprimary In addition to activating local inhibitory circuits, one or permanentmolars requiring similar-sized Class I or Class II restorations.The pain levels duringrestorative treatment possible explanation for the effectiveness of TENSis that the electrical stimulationcauses release of pituitary wereassessed using a visual analoguescale. Heartrates and and hypothalamic opioid peptides into the systemic behaviorwere also recorded.A crossoverdesign was used with circulation or into the cerebrospinal fluid. 7 Another eachchild actingas his/her owncontrol. Theresults showed theory is that serotonin, dopamine,and nor-adrenalin, that overall, EDAwas less effective thanLA for cavity prepa- which may have roles in the effects of electrically ration. Thereported pain scores for EDAwere higher in per- produced analgesia, are produced.8 Drugs affecting manentteeth for the deepercavities, and with one of the these neurotransmitters have been shown to alter operators.The pre- or post-treatmentanxiety scores were not analgesia produced by stimulation or opioids. The foundto differ significantly betweenthe two restorativeap- exact mechanismof TENSremains unknownand may pointments.However, children with the highestpretreatment be a combinationof one or moreof the theories.
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