J Oral Rehabil. 1993 Sep; 20(5): 541-8.

Effects on local blood flux of acupuncture stimulation used to treat xerostomia in patients suffering from SjÃ¶gren's syndrome.

Blom M, Lundeberg T, Dawidson I, Angmar-MÃ¥nsson B.

Department of Cariology, School of Dentistry, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden.

Twenty-one patients with SjÃ¶gren's syndrome were given four different kinds of acupuncture stimulation, at acupuncture points previously used to treat xerostomia. The local blood flux in the skin overlying the parotid gland was measured with laser Doppler flowmetry before, during and after the acupuncture stimulation. The results showed that the local blood flux increased significantly during and after both manual acupuncture and low-frequency (2 Hz) electro-acupuncture as compared with superficial acupuncture. These results indicate that acupuncture induced an increase in the local blood flux which was more pronounced for those patients who had previously reacted with increased salivary flow to acupuncture.