• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.124-131
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• 2003

The concentration of nitrous oxide in dental environment has increased especially in pediatric department. In pediatric department frequently met the behavior disordered patients who need the deep sedation. As the deeply sedated patients could not respond well to verbal command, the amount of mouth breathing would be increased especially with mouth prop which backward transposition of mandible. Inhalation of low concentration of nitrous oxide for a long duration has caused various side effects such as spontaneous abortion and inhibition of methionine synthetase activity which is harmful to DNA synthesis. For evaluation of factors of mouth breathing during deep sedation. The author measured the concentration of nitrous oxide in breathing zone by the change of the scavenging methods. One is drain the gas through the tail part of reservoir bag of Jackson Ree's system naturally. Another is scavenge from tail portion of reservoir bag with negative pressure. Last one is scavenge from nasal mask with negative pressure. The nitrous oxide concentration in breathing zone was the lowest in nasal part drainage but high above the recommended concentration of NIOSH. The order of nitrous concentration in breathing zone was: natural drainage, tail part with negative pressure, nasal part with negative pressure. This would reflect the order of resistance of nasal airway and showed the amount of mouth breathing. From the above experiment, the resistance of nasal airway by the increment of gas flow in corrugating tube and reservoir bag would be one of the causative factors of mouth breathing in deeply sedated patients.