• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.243-250
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• 2012

Trigeminal nerve injuries due to invasive dental procedures such as implant surgery and extraction is one of the most serious issues in dentistry and may provoke medico-legal problems. Thus, for objective and reliable assessment of nerve injury, a need of QST (quantitative sensory testing) is emphasized and thermal threshold test is an essential part of QST, reported to have acceptable reliability in the orofacial region. This pilot study aimed to evaluate thermal thresholds for limited cases of trigeminal nerve injures. The study investigated 18 clinical cases with trigeminal nerve injuries who visited Department of Oral Medicine, Dankook Univeristy Dental Hospital during the period from May 2011 to Oct 2012. Thermal thresholds was measured by Thermal Sensory Analyzer, TSA-II (Medoc, Israel). Their CDT(cold detection threshold) was significantly decreased in the affected sides compared to the unaffected sides. Other parameters such as WDT(warm detection threshold), CPT(cold pain threshold) and HPT(heat pain threshold) did not show statistical difference between the affected and unaffected sides. Further researches are required to compare thermal thresholds relative to types of nerve deficits such as thermal hyper- or hypoesthesia and hyper- or hypoalgesia for larger sample.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.413-419
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• 2007

The aims of this study were to investigate the relationships among several types of thermal pain thresholds, and pressure pain thresholds. This study was designed to examine whether there were associations among different types of pain thresholds, and among different recording sites for each pain threshold measurement. Pain sensitivity thresholds including cold pain threshold (CPT), heat pain threshold (HPT), heat pain tolerance threshold (PTT), and pressure pain threshold (PPT) of 56 subjects with symptoms of temporomandibular disorders were measured on temporal muscle, masseter muscle, TMJ, and tibial areas. Thermal pain thresholds including CPT, HPT, and PTT did not show any gender differences. However, women showed significantly lower PPTs than men on all recording sites. Three thermal pain thresholds including CPT, HPT, and PTT showed weak to high correlations on all the recording sites (r= 0.324 to 0.754, p<0.05). PPTs did not show any significant correlations between each thermal pain threshold. The pain threshold of each recording site showed weak to high correlations in all pain threshold measures (r= 0.284 to 0.878, p<0.05). Our study demonstrated that thermal pain thresholds, and pain tolerance thresholds were significantly correlated, but did not show any correlation between thermal pain thresholds and pressure pain thresholds. There were relatively high correlations among the pain thresholds of different recording sites.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.367-372
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• 2013

To diagnose sensory nerve damage, patient values for thermal stimuli as quantitative sensory test (QST) can be compared with the values of the general population (absolute reference data) or to values measured at contralateral unaffected side (relative reference data). It is well know that relative reference data are more sensitive for detecting sensory abnormality than absolute reference data. However it is still lack of the studies for comparisons between relative and absolute data. This study aimed to evaluate the validity of relative reference data and compare the sensitivities of the two approaches in the orofacial region. In 19 young Korean women as normal subjects, quantitative somatosensory thermotest were done in the forehead, cheek, mentum, lower lip and tongue tip bilaterally. After we get the standard deviations (SD) of average reference data and relative reference data, the ratios SD absolute data/SD relative data were calculated. Our study showed that relative reference data for side to side comparisons in the same patient have the high ratios than the absolute reference data, i.e. the side to side comparisons with relative reference data exhibit gain in sensitivity in assessment of sensory abnormality.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.215-224
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• 2011

The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of 904 nm GaAs laser irradiation for patients with hypersensitive teeth and to find the possibility of clinical use of this Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) for the control of hypersensitive teeth. Eleven patients visited Dept. of Oral Medicine, Dankook University participated in this study. Each patient contributed at least two or more contralateral pairs of hypersensitive teeth with exposed dentine at cervical surfaces. Total number of teeth used from subjects participated in this study was 50: 25 experimental and control teeth respectively. All participants were treated with 904 nm GaAs diode laser every week during 4 weeks. Tactile and cold (ice stick) tests were carried out before LLLT every week during 4 weeks and 1 week later after the last LLLT by measuring visual analogue scale (VAS) of patients and by measuring a score of electrical pulp tester (EPT) simultaneously. The VAS score in tactile test decreased significantly with time, but there was not statistically difference between those of groups. The score of EPT in the experimental group was significantly higher than that of control group, although there was no change with time. In cold test, there was significant difference between two groups and cold sensitivity of the experimental group significantly decreased with time after every LLL irradiation, compared with that of control group. Based on the results, it is suggested that the 904 nm GaAs laser irradiation could be positively used as an effective, reversible method in treating cervical dentine hypersensitivity.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.21 no.2 s.24
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• pp.357-364
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• 1988

By implementing epoch-making policies for industrial promotion, the national economy has made a remarkable development. As a result of such economic growth, industrial accidents and occupational diseases have become a serious problem in Korean society. In the presidential order for the execution of the Korean Labor Standard Law, neuritis and other diseases stemming from health impairments due to vibrations in industrial processes are designated to be dealt with as vibration diseases. In the case of vibration disease, industrial accident compensation is not effectively paid. In order to investigate the vibration hazards of rock-drill operation, the authors studied the subjective symptoms and performed physical function tests on a total of 79 persons (vibration exposed group) who used rock-drills, and 39 persons (control group) who did not use rock-drills at anthracite mines. The results of the physical function test were as follosws : 1. The right hand was more affected by white finger than the left hand. 2. Independent variables such as duration of rock-drill operation, age, drinking and smoking were indentified as statistically significant factors for the occurrence of white finger. 3. In the pain sense threshold, the group with Raynaud's phenomenon showed a statistically higher level than that of the control group. 4. The skin temperature of the group with Raynaud's phenomenon was lower than that of the control group. The recovery time of skin temperature aftr cooling was delayed compared with the value of the control group.