Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 14 December 1962:
Vol. 138. no. 3546, pp. 1258 - 1259
DOI: 10.1126/science.138.3546.1258
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Sound Stimulation and Its Effect on Dental Sensation Threshold

Sidney Carlin 1, W. Dixon Ward 1, Arthur Gershon 1, and Rex Ingraham 1

1 Human Factors Research Division, School of Dentistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

The success of "auditory analgesia" in dental operations may be a result of distraction, suggestion, or cross-sensory masking, or of a combination of the three. An attempt to separate these influences was made by measuring the change in sensitivity to electrical stimulation of the teeth in typical dental patients upon presentation of loud white noise. No differences in this "tingle" threshold under noise and no-noise conditions were found, either when preliminary instructions were neutral or after implicit or explicit suggestion that the noise would raise the threshold. These results indicate that auditory analgesia is probably not an example of cross-sensory masking, and that its successful use in the clinical situation depends both on distraction and on suggestion.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Psychological Stress Reduction During Dental Procedures.
N. L. Corah, E. N. Gale, and S. J. Illig (1979)
Journal of Dental Research 58, 1347-1351
   Abstract »    PDF »
The Effect of Audio-Analgesia on Pain Threshold and Pain Tolerance.
T. E. Morosko and F. F. Simmons (1966)
Journal of Dental Research 45, 1608-1617
   PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)