Dentistry and hypertension.

The author monitored the systolic and diastolic blood pressure, or BP; mean arterial pressure, or MAP; and heart rate, or HR, of hypertensive and normotensive patients once each minute during dental procedures. He found statistically significant differences in the means of the initial five and final five systolic BP and diastolic BP, MAP and HR readings. Exceptions were the HR in 18- to 45-year-old normotensive patients and the systolic BP in hypertensive patients. The author concluded that the time at which BP is monitored during a dental procedure may be significant.