| Popis: |
We provide patients who have problems with reduced salivation (hyposalivation) with artificial saliva treatment, humectants, and salivary gland massage (Ueda et al. 2005). However, treatment with artificial saliva and humectants is symptomatic, and although salivary gland massage can reinvigorate weak glands, to do so is difficult for people with disabilities and has varying effects, depending on operator skill. Thus, we have focused on increasing salivation through the use of vibrotactile stimulation, as reported by Hiraba et al. (2008). Before using this apparatus on patients, it was necessary to first estimate the effect on normal subjects. The biggest challenge with continuous use of stimulation is an adaptive effect. In particular, we were interested in determining whether the effect was continuous without attenuation, when patients continue using the apparatus every day (Despopoulos and Silbernagel, 2003). We investigated adaptation to the continuous use of vibrotactile stimuli for 4 or 5 days in the same subjects to determine whether this resulted in a decrease in salivation (Despopoulos and Silbernagel, 2003; Principles of Neural Science. 2000a). Before this experiment was performed, it was necessary to compare resting and stimulating salivary secretion and to investigate the most effective frequency for increasing salivary secretion. We examined the amount of salivation during vibrotactile stimuli with a single motor (1.9 μm amplitude) on the bilateral masseter muscle belly (on the parotid glands), using a dental cotton roll positioned at the opening of the secretory duct for 3 min. Furthermore, we examined the amount of salivation during vibrotactile stimuli with single and double motors (1.9 μm and 3.5 μm amplitudes) on the bilateral submandibular angles (on the submandibular glands). Then, we compared resting and stimulating salivation and investigated the most effective frequency for increasing salivary secretion. The effect of increased salivation in normal subjects was determined as the difference between resting and stimulating salivation. We defined a 5-min interval as the recovery time between resting and stimulating salivation from a preliminary study. First, we examined the most effective frequency for salivation of |
