Association between oral variables and heart rate variability

Table 1 Studies regarding the relationship between cardiac autonomic control and dental science

Authors and year	Objectives	Key findings
Ekuni et al. [10]	To investigate the relationship between malocclusion and HRV in young healthy adults.	Orthodontic treatment can contribute to not only improvement of oral function and aesthetics, but also for the improvement of stress levels and HRV.
Maixner et al. [11]	Check the association between autonomic variables and TMD.	TMD was associated with higher heart rate, reduced HRV and baroreflex sensitivity reduction. These results provide evidence of an association between TMD and autonomic factors.
Montebugnoli et al. [6]	To evaluate the sensitivity of HRV in dental surgery compared with other clinical parameters most frequently used in clinical practice dentistry.	Among the clinical parameters (systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and HRV) HRV was the only one that was significantly different in all four test periods. Thus, HRV is a highly sensitive parameter for quantifying autonomic impulses to the heart during dental surgery.
Matsumura et al. [12]	To determine changes in blood pressure, pulse and HRV during dental surgery.	The patients of middle age and older presented higher blood pressure increase during dental surgery than younger patients and the regulation of the autonomic nervous system during dental surgery differs between younger and older patients.