The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of dental treatment on the urinary catecholamine level. The subjects were 25 healthy children aged from 3 to 11 years. They were divided into two groups: One group was 15children who received caries preventive proceedures, and other group was 10children who received cavity preparation with infiltration anesthesia using Citanest-Octapressin (Without epinephrine). The urine samples analysed were collected before and after dental treatment. Dopamine, noradrenaline and adrenaline were isolated from the urine and quantitative analyses were performed.
The results are summarized as follows;
1. There were no significant differences between the two groups in the concentrations of dopamine, noradrenaline and adrenaline before treatment.
2. The concentrations of dopamine, noradrenaline and adrenaline in the group undergoing caries preventive proceedures showed no significant difference between before and after treatment.
3. The group undergoing cavity preparation showed higher concentrations of dopamine, noradrenaline and adrenaline after treatment than before treatment. Especially the adrenaline concentration showed a statistically significant difference between before and after treatment (p<0.05).
4. The conversion ratio of dopamine, noradrenaline and adrenaline in the group undergoing cavity preparation showed higher than that of caries preventive treatment group. Especially the adrenaline coversion ratio showed a statistically significant difference between the group undergoing caries preventive proceedures and the group undergoing cavity preparation (p<0.05).