The main objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of emergencies in dental practices and the preparedness and the training experience in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) of Brazilian dentists in dealing with emergencies. The volunteer participants in the study were 498 Brazilian dentists who were present at the 27th International Congress of Dentistry in São Paulo. The most prevalent emergency was presyncope (reported by 54.20 percent of respondents), followed by orthostatic hypotension (44.37 percent), moderate allergic reactions (16.86 percent), hypertensive crisis (15.06 percent), asthma (15.06 percent), syncope (12.65 percent), angina (6.82 percent), convulsion (6.22 percent), hypoglycemia (5.62 percent), hyperventilation crisis (5.22 percent), choking (2.20 percent), and cerebrovascular accident (0.8 percent). Anaphylaxis, myocardial infarction, and cardiac arrest were the rarest emergencies, reported by only 0.4, 0.2, and 0.2 percent of dentists, respectively. Only 41 percent of the dentists judged themselves capable to diagnose the cause of an emergency during a dental visit. The majority responded that they would be capable of performing initial treatment of presyncope, syncope, orthostatic hypotension, convulsion, and choking. However, most of them felt unable to treat anaphylaxis, myocardial infarction, or cardiac arrest. Further, the majority felt unable to perform CPR or undertake an intravenous injection. It was concluded that the most prevalent medical emergencies in dental practice of Brazilian dentists are presyncope and orthostatic hypotension. The occurrence of life-threatening medical emergencies like anaphylaxis, myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest, and cerebrovascular accident is rare. Brazilian dentists are not fully prepared to manage medical emergencies and have insufficient experience training in CPR

and ‡Professor of Dentistry, School of Piracicaba-UNICAMP, Piracicaba, Brazil Cardiovascular effects of felypressin (FEL) were studied in Wistar rats. Heart rate and mean arterial pressure measurements were taken in awake rats treated with vasopressin (AVP), FEL, or epinephrine (EPI). Each group received either an intravenous (IV) or an intracerebroventricular V 1 receptor antagonist, saline, area postrema removal, or sham surgery. Analysis of variance and Student-Newman-Keuls (P Ͻ .05) were applied. Felypressin and AVP induced a pressor effect, and bradycardia was inhibited by IV V 1 antagonist. Intracerebroventricular V 1 antagonist and area postrema removal enhanced their pressor effects. Epinephrine induced a higher pressor effect and a similar bradycardia that was not affected by the treatments. It was concluded that FEL depends on V 1 receptors to induce pressor and bradycardic effects, and that it produces a high relationship between bradycardia and mean arterial pressure variation depending on area postrema and central V 1 receptors. These effects are potentially less harmful to the cardiovascular system than the effects of EPI.Key Words: Anesthesia, local; Vasoconstrictor agents; Blood pressure; Baroreflex; Vasopressin. F elypressin (FEL), a synthetic analogue of vasopressin (AVP), has been widely used as a substitute for epinephrine (EPI) in anesthetic solutions to promote local vasoconstriction during medical and dental practices.1,2 Because it has no interaction with adrenergic receptors, it is suggested that FEL has fewer side effects than EPI.3 Hence, FEL causes fewer cardiovascular 4 and metabolic 5 side effects, and it has a higher median lethal dose (LD50) 6 than EPI. However, the mechanisms and the receptors used by FEL to induce cardiovascular effects are unknown, and very few studies have been conducted on its possible systemic effects.AVP, as opposed to FEL, has been widely studied. It acts on 2 subtypes of vasopressin receptors (V 1 and V 2 receptors). In physiological conditions, the vascular V 1 receptors promote vasoconstriction when linked to AVP. It has great importance because it helps control arterial pressure by enhancing it, mainly when a reduc- tion in blood volume occurs.3 Another physiological role for AVP occurs when it is associated with central V 1 receptors, inducing an increase in baroreflex gain (BG).7,8 BG may be defined as the degree of effectiveness to which the baroreflex maintains the arterial pressure at near-normal conditions, producing reflex bradycardia and vasodilation after a rapid arterial pressure elevation or permitting tachycardia and vasoconstriction after a decrease in arterial pressure.9 Injection of the V 1 receptor antagonist in the area postrema (AP) 10 or AP lesion 11 inhibits the ability of peripheral AVP to enhance BG. The V 2 receptors are present in the kidneys, and they promote water retention when they are linked to AVP. 3Because the FEL molecule is similar to the AVP molecule, it is possible that FEL activates cardiovascular mechanisms similar ...

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To better understand and observe craniofacial growth, researchers carry out longitudinal cephalometric studies on animals. The authors constructed a cephalostat specially designed to study craniofacial growth in rats. They describe and validate a cephalometric technique using this cephalostat. They carried out cephalometric radiography and analysis of 62 Wistar rats. By using this method, the authors were able to take repeated, reproducible intracranial, intramandibular and craniomandibular measurements of the rats. The proposed method is a useful tool for studying the craniofacial growth process.