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Differential changes in gingival somatosensory sensitivity after painful electrical tooth stimulation

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Abstract

We aimed to evaluate the effect of painful tooth stimulation on gingival somatosensory sensitivity of healthy volunteers in a randomized, controlled design. Thirteen healthy volunteers (six women, seven men; 28.4 ± 5.0 years) were included for two experimental sessions of electrical tooth stimulation: painful tooth stimulation and tooth stimulation below the sensory threshold (control). Eight of the human subjects participated in a third session without tooth stimulation. In all sessions, the somatosensory sensitivity of the gingiva adjacent to the stimulated tooth was evaluated with a standardized battery of quantitative sensory tests (QST) before, immediately after and 30 min after tooth stimulation. Painful tooth stimulation evoked significant decreases in warmth and heat pain thresholds (P < 0.001) as well as pressure pain thresholds (increased sensitivity) (P = 0.024) and increases in mechanical detection thresholds (decreased sensitivity) (P < 0.050). Similar thermal threshold changes (P < 0.019) but no mechanical changes were found after tooth stimulation below the sensory threshold (P > 0.086). No QST changes were detected in the session without tooth stimulation (P > 0.060). In conclusion, modest increased gingival sensitivity to warmth, painful heat and pressure stimuli as well as desensitization to non-painful mechanical stimulation were demonstrated after tooth stimulation. This suggests involvement of competing heterotopic facilitatory and inhibitory mechanisms. Furthermore, stimulation below the sensory threshold induced similar thermal sensitization suggesting the possibility of activation of axon-reflex-like mechanisms even at intensities below the perception threshold. These findings may have implications for interpretation of somatosensory results in patients with chronic intraoral pain.

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Acknowledgments

This study was financially supported by the Aarhus University Research Foundation, Beijing Stomatological Hospital research funding 13-09-06 and Capital Medical University research funding 14-JL-77.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Clinical Oral Physiology, Department of Dentistry, HEALTH, Aarhus University, Vennelyst Boulevard 9, 8000, Århus C, Denmark

    Lene Baad-Hansen, Shengyi Lu & Peter Svensson

  2. Scandinavian Center for Neuroscience (SCON), Aarhus, Denmark

    Lene Baad-Hansen, Thomas List & Peter Svensson

  3. Scandinavian Center for Neuroscience (SCON), Malmö, Sweden

    Lene Baad-Hansen, Thomas List & Peter Svensson

  4. Scandinavian Center for Neuroscience (SCON), Stockholm, Sweden

    Lene Baad-Hansen, Thomas List & Peter Svensson

  5. Department of Oral Implantology, Beijing Stomatological Hospital, Capital Medical University, Dongcheng District, Beijing, China

    Shengyi Lu & Zhenting Zhang

  6. Department of Stomatognathic Physiology, Institute of Dentistry, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Pentti Kemppainen

  7. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Diseases, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland

    Pentti Kemppainen

  8. Department of Orofacial Pain and Jaw Function, Faculty of Odontology, Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden

    Thomas List

  9. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Skåne University Hospital, Lund, Sweden

    Thomas List

  10. Department of Dental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge, Sweden

    Peter Svensson

Authors
  1. Lene Baad-Hansen
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  2. Shengyi Lu
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  3. Pentti Kemppainen
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  4. Thomas List
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  5. Zhenting Zhang
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  6. Peter Svensson
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Correspondence to Lene Baad-Hansen.

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Baad-Hansen, L., Lu, S., Kemppainen, P. et al. Differential changes in gingival somatosensory sensitivity after painful electrical tooth stimulation. Exp Brain Res 233, 1109–1118 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-014-4186-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-014-4186-4

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