Review Article
Tens as Novel Salivary Augmentation Device - A Systematic Review
G. Komali
Correspondence Address :
G Komali
Professor
Oral Medicine and Radiology
Panineeya Mahavidyalaya
Institute of Dental Sciences and Research
Centre
Road No 5, Kamala Nagar, Dilshuknagar
Hyderabad
Telangana 500060
India
Tel: 91 8008884945
Email: komali_garlapati@yahoo.co.in
Received on: March 05, 2017, Accepted on: March 27, 2017, Published on: April 06, 2017
Citation: G Komali (2017). Tens as Novel Salivary Augmentation Device - A Systematic Review
Copyright: 2017 G Komali. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Saliva plays a critical role in the maintenance of oropharyngeal health. Decrease in the production of saliva leads to xerostomia which is one of the major symptoms that causes significant distress to the patients. It is caused due to varied etiological factors, common in elderly individuals adversely affecting the quality of life. Treatment of this condition is a great challenge to the dentists all over the world. There are both pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods of management. Pharmacological methods are associated with certain side effects, hence non-pharmacological methods like Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) therapy was introduced to improve the salivary secretion by stimulation of nerves by electrical energy of frequency and intensity tolerable to the patient. Many studies have been conducted to evaluate the efficacy of this Salivary Augmentation Device (SAD) in xerostomia patients and were found to increase the salivary flow rate and can act synergistically with other modalities of treatment. This article gives detailed information on extraoral TENS mechanism of action, preparation of patient and critical analysis of research in xerostomia patients and future recommendations.