The Amazing New Painkiller-
MUSIC!
J4 K-
I Mi 'vi.flk- 5T If f,
Sound a concert in stereo, a roaring waterfall,
a train whistle is now being used successfully in the
dentist's office, and its potential value in
surgery and childbirth seems far-reaching
By GAY GAER
Dr. Wallace Gardner drills painlessly on pa
tient listening to music as Dr. Licklider observes.
A five-year-old boy in Boston, who usually cried
at the dentist's, sat quietly while having two
cavities filled recently. He did this without receiv
ing novocain or gas. Instead, he wore earphones.
Hopping out of the chair afterward, he had only
one comment, "Gee, Mom, that diesel sure can blow
its whistle!" A recording of diesel sounds had helped
to kill his pain!
In a Midwest dental clinic this spring, an elderly
lady underwent a complicated oral operation with
out any chemical painkiller. Hypertension pre
cluded the usual anesthetics. While the doctor
pulled four teeth, trimmed bone, and sewed tissue,
her only relief came from music and a rushing
sound through earphones. "Astonishing!" she said
later. "It didn't hurt."
Audio-annlgesia "pain-killing by sound" is
one of modern science's newest and most unusual
discoveries. The procedure is simple. A patient
chooses a recording, puts on earphones, and relaxes
by' listening. If he feels any discomfort, he adjusts a
remote control, and a sound like the rushing of a
waterfall alleviates the pain. Incredible as it seems,
the combination of music and other sounds has alle
viated pain in dentistry, surgery, and childbirth.
The discovery that sound can kill pain resulted
from the lucky meeting of two men. Dr. Wallace J.
Gardner, a Cambridge, Mass., dentist, had long
been experimenting with music as an analgesia
when a new patient came to him. The patient was
Dr. J. C. R. Licklider, a psychologist whose spe
cialty is the study of sound. Licklider faced exten
sive and painful dental work. After the first gruel
ing session, he and Gardner decided that drilling
would be less obnoxious if they could drown out
the noise of the drill.
For the next appointment, Licklider brought
along an electronic noise generator. "I put on ear
phones," he said, "and when Doctor Gardner began
grinding away at one of my molars, I turned up a
sound like the roar of Niagara Falls. Believe me, it
was wonderful to feel that pain recede."
This experience led to joint research to discover
why sound affects pain, and which combination of
sounds will mask pain. Using a well-equipped
acoustical laboratory and the help of trained spe
cialists, they found the most effective sound com
binations, the first "hi-fi system" ever designed
expressly as a painkiller.
Since then, more than 5,000 persons including
500 extraction cases have found that dentistry
can be a relaxed experience when listening to music
or noise. Audio-analgesia has been effective on 90
percent of the patients who have tried it. Many were
children who usually threw tantrums, or adults
who panicked despite gas or novocain.
Dr. Frederick A. Trevor of Melrose, Mass., ex
plains that sound eased the anxiety part of their
agony in a way no chemical could. One of Dr.
Trevor's most nervous patients used to go to bed
for two days to recover from a visit. Last winter he
persuaded her to try sound. "For the first time," he
says, "she enjoyed a normal day after seeing me."
Because tension and anxiety magnify pain, relax
ation and distraction are important factors in
diminishing it "First of all," says one patient, "you
are told it won't hurt. Then that stereo music in the
earphones is so terrific the rest of the world seems
far away. You couldn't care less about what's going
on with the doctor. You feel half asleep, dreaming.
The noise just pushes the pain out of the way."
Equally important, audio-analgesia leaves no un
pleasant side effects, such as excessive bleeding.
In one of the first surgical tests of the new pain
killer, Dr. Licklider had a small tumor removed
from his shoulder. "I felt only the bearable prickling
of skin cuts," he said. Toenail removals, usually very
excruciating, subsequently were performed using
sound, and patients felt no pain.
Soon, according to Gardner and others, some
types of heart operations, now requiring multi
ple anesthetics, may be performed with only a local
anesthetic while the patient listens to music. A com
pact hi-fi set in ambulances may relieve the pain
and shock of accident victims. And for many who
cannot take anesthesia without dangerous reactions,
audio-analgesia could prove a lifesaver.
Already, a number of children have been born to
music. Obstetricians observe that these babies are
born extremely alert, as in "natural childbirth," and
that the mothers emerge with a sense of well-being
and recover rapidly.
Nobody can predict how widely audio-analgesia
will be used in the future. But those who have ex
perienced it entertain high hopes like the new
mother who was wheeled from the delivery room
exclaiming, "What a wonderful experience! I'll
always remember South Pacific!"
tWsjitfiWTrnTi'Thenisi
COVER:
Polly Bergen lends enchantment to on old
fashioned sunbonnet in Richard Heimann's
photo. She models others destined to go to
your head in "Summer Cover-Ups," p. 18.
Waakljr
LEONARD S. DAVIDOW Prreidrnt and PMither
WAITER C. DREYFUS Vice Preeidcnt
PATRICK (. O'ROURKE Aduertitmg Director
Send all advertising communications to
Family Weekly, 133 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago I, III.
Address all communications about tdltorlal features to
Family Weekly, 60 E. 56th St., Now York 72. N. Y.
(I IHO, FAMIIY WtBKlY MAGAZINE, INC.,
May 22, I960
Board of Editors
ERNEST V. HEYN Editor-in-Chiel
BEN KARTMAN Krirtrtive Kditor
ROBERT FITZOIBBON Managing Kditor
MARGARET BEll Feature Kditor
PHIllIP DYKSTRA Art Krertor
MEIANIE DE PROFT Food Kditor
Bob Driscoll, Irma Heldman, John Hochmann, Jerry Klein,
Harold London, Jack Ryanj Peer Oppenheimer, Hollywood.
153 N. Michigan Aye., Chicago 1, III. All rights reserved.