Blocking the feeling of pain: No fear at the dentist

Pain is a subjective, unpleasant feeling, which most often occurs as a result of tissue damage, disease or injury. It represents a protective mechanism whose function is to make the organism aware of danger and react to remove the stimulus. If the painful stimulus cannot be removed, then chronic pain occurs, which no longer has a protective role, but rather burdens the patient.

Regardless of the cause, none of us likes him. Unfortunately, many procedures in dentistry are accompanied by this feeling, and this is the main reason why many of you do not like visiting dental offices. Moreover, the process of removing pain from therapy, ie. the anesthesia procedure is usually painful, which makes it difficult to visit the patient and the dentist's work.

However, the end of that problem is in sight. Research conducted over the past few years has shown that the application of continuous vibrations has a counter-stimulating effect to the anesthetic injection, the transmission of which through the nerves makes it possible to reach the brain faster. In this way, the feeling of pain is blocked.

How is this even possible? Back in 1965, two scientists, Ronald Melcak and Patrick Wall, proposed the theory of the neurological "gate". According to this theory, in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord there is a kind of "gate" that can block or allow the spread of pain impulses to the pain centers located in the brain.

As the sensation of vibration is transmitted by type A nerve fibers, their transmission speed is about 75 meters per second.

In contrast to them, the sensation of pain is transmitted along nerve fibers of type C, the speed of which is about 2 meters per second. When they occur simultaneously, the sensation, i.e. the feeling of vibration, reaches the spinal cord first.

When they reach the "gate", these sensations pass on, but at the same time lead to the release of inter-neuronal inhibitors.

They prevent the passage of other stimuli from the same region, thus preventing the passage of pain. As a result of these researches, an apparatus was obtained which has the role of making constant vibrations at the point of needle insertion. In this way, it is possible for patients to have a much more pleasant visit to the dentist, and for dentists to provide a much more pleasant visit to their patients.

(www.mojstomatolog.net)