Tooth Pre-pain Sensation Elicited by Electrical Stimulation

¹ Department of Physiology, School of Dentistry, Tokyo Medical and Dental University Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Pre-pain sensation, elicited by three kinds of electrical stimulation in human maxillary anterior teeth of adult men, was investigated.

1. Sensations (pre-pain) were produced in electrically stimulated teeth. The strength-duration curve of this pre-pain and pain was a simple rectangular hyperbola with a rheobase of 3-12 µamperes.

2. Latent addition by subthreshold stimulation did not exist.

3. Clear accommodation existed in pre-pain sensation of three men. The accommodation constant varied from 6 to 50 milliseconds. In one subject very little accommodation existed.

4. The optimum cycle range from stimulating the teeth was 30-60 cycle per second, tested by the sine-curve alternating current ranging from 10 cycle per second to 20 kc per second.

5. The reaction time was 200.9 ± 4.4 milliseconds (932 experiments on two subjects) when maxillary central incisor was stimulated. Differences were not seen in reaction time of right and left maxillary central incisors. The reaction time shortened in proportion to logarithms of stimulating strength.

6. The fusion times, when the tooth was stimulated by double square pulse currents of 0.11 milliseconds duration were about 26 milliseconds when the subject looked at spotlight of decatron. With eyes closed the fusion times increased to 104 milliseconds.

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