Monitoring stress levels during anesthetic injection

Anesthetic injections may be driving stress in teen patients undergoing dental procedures, according to a report from News-Medical. The findings were presented at the 2024 Congress of the European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry.

In the study, researchers used devices capturing hand movement and sweating via electrodermal activity to monitor the stress levels of 34 patients aged 14 to 16 undergoing either standard dental examination or anesthetic injection and subsequent tooth extraction.

While the patients who underwent standard dental examination exhibited scattered stress patterns, those who received anesthetic injections experienced higher levels of stress for longer durations. The researchers found that this higher level of stress was linked to anesthetic injections and spiked during administration.

The findings may lead to the development of new techniques to prevent stress in this patient population.

Read more: News-Medical

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