Eupnea prior to oral injection

Clients may be at risk for medical emergencies during oral health care treatment, be it invasive or noninvasive. Stress has often been identified as a trigger for medical emergencies, thus employment of stress reduction strategies has been suggested to prevent such events from occurring, particularly in apprehensive and medically compromised clients. Although oral health professionals are trained to categorize the psychological nature of an individual and his or her expected response to treatment procedures, actual behaviour is difficult to predict. One of the procedures clients often find stressful in dentistry is the injection of local anesthetic prior to commencement of a procedure. One stress reduction strategy suggested in the literature is the use of “eupnea” or deep breathing, although not typically employed routinely by oral health professionals. This short communication aims to illustrate the beneficial effects of eupnea and suggests that it may be useful for clients who find the injection of local anesthetics to be stressful. Eupnea could potentially minimize the incidence of medical emergencies in the oral health care setting.