Salivary Alpha Amylase, Dental Anxiety, and Extraction Pain: A Pilot Study

Abstract

The primary intention of this study was to determine whether salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) factors or the Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) was a better predictor of dental extraction pain. This study followed a cross-sectional design and included a convenience sample (n ¼ 23) recruited from an outpatient oral surgery clinic. While waiting for their scheduled appointments, consenting patients completed both basic demographic/medical history questionnaires and Corah's DAS as well as submitted sublingual saliva samples. After their extractions, patients marked visual analog scales (VAS) to indicate the intensity of their intraoperative discomfort. Results of this study confirm that there is a relationship between a patient's dental anxiety and intraoperative extraction pain (r[21] ¼ .47, P ¼ .02). This study did not find that preoperative sAA factors (concentration and output rate) were related to either VAS extraction pain or DAS score. A strong positive relationship was observed between the concentration of sAA and the rate of sAA output (r[21] ¼ .81, P , .001). Based on the results of our study, we conclude that dental anxiety has a moderate but significant correlation with intraoperative dental pain. Factors of sAA do not appear to be predictive of this experience. Therefore, simply assessing an anxious patient may be the best indication of that patient's extraction pain.

Necmettin Erbakan Üniversitesi Diş Hekimliği Fakültesi’ne Başvuran Hastaların Dental Anksiyete Düzeylerinin Değerlendirilmesi

“…3,[7][8][9] Ayrıca, kişilik özellikleri, travmatik diş hekimi deneyimi, çocukluk çağındaki ağrılı diş hekimi deneyimi veya hatta arkadaş çevresinden veya aile üyelerinden dolaylı öğrenmeyle ilgili birçok faktörden kaynaklanabilir. [10][11][12][13][14] Dental anksiyete dünya çapında yaygındır ve bir nüfus veya ülke ile sınırlı değildir. 15 Nüfusa ve ölçüm yöntemlerine göre değişmekle birlikte, dental anksiyetenin görülme sıklığı %2,5-20 arasında değişmektedir.…”

Prevalence of dental anxiety among dental patients in Saudi Arabia

“…[ 1 6 7 8 ] It is also related to many factors such as personality characteristics, a history of traumatic dental experience, painful dental experience in childhood, or even from indirect learning from dentally anxious peers or family members. [ 9 10 11 12 13 ]…”

Predicting adverse events in patients who are anxious about dental procedures

“…Studies evaluating these methods have used the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; comprising STAIY-1 and STAIY-2) [11]. These evaluate the degree of anxiety, vital signs (blood pressure, pulse rate, and arterial oxygen saturation) and can be used to evaluate the patient's systemic state over time and salivary amylase activity [12,13]. Patients provided informed consent explanations or administered music sedation or aromatherapy had lower STAIY-1 scores, more stable vital sign scores, and lower salivary amylase activity than those that did not.…”