Significant variation in salivation by short-term suggestive intervention: a randomized controlled cross-over clinical study.

Introduction: Most dental procedures require a dry working environment. Although many evaporative drying methods are available, an additional reduction of salivary flow would often be helpful.

Methods: This prospective randomized cross-over study compares salivary production in 31 volunteers during direct, indirect, and non-suggestive (control group) intervention. Overall, each volunteer underwent four salivation measurements, i.e. two measurements during two different types of hypnotic suggestion (indirect and direct) arranged in random order and two control sections. All four measurements were conducted successively.

Results: Both suggestive methods significantly reduced salivary production in comparison to the two control sections (direct suggestion Δ = 1.46 grams per 5 min, p < 0.001, indirect suggestion Δ = 0.94 grams per 5 min, p = 0.039). Direct suggestion showed a significantly higher reduction of salivary production than indirect suggestion (Δ = -0.53 grams per 5 min, p = 0.001).

Conclusions: Hypnotic suggestion represents a simple and inexpensive method to reduce salivation and could thus create a better working environment for more comfortable dental treatments for both patients and dentists.