Physiological responses
EARLY PUBERTY, MINOR
The salivary cortisol level ranged between 1.5 and 13 nmol/l (mean 3.3 [SD 3.1]) at the baseline recordings at the first visit. During the clinical examination on the second visit, the mean cortisol level decreased by 2.5 nmol/l (31% [SD 45] range −58 to 71%) in the cohort with the dog present at the first visit and 0.4 nmol/l (20% [SD 21] range −17 to 46%) without the therapy dog presence. In the baseline recording at the second visit, the salivary cortisol level ranged between 1.2 and 10.7 nmol/l, with minor differences between the two cohorts. The cohort examined in the presence of a therapy dog had a mean of 2.2 nmol/l (SD 1.2) compared to 3.4 nmol/l (SD 3.3) in the cohort about to meet the dental therapy dog at their second visit. At the second clinical examination, the mean cortisol level decreased by 0.8 nmol/l (29% [SD 17] range 9 to 57%) in the cohort with the dog present and 0.1 nmol/l (3% [SD 23] range −41 to 25%) without the therapy dog presence. Intraindividual variation was noted. Two study participants showed higher cortisol levels than the others, attributed to the effects of early puberty, that is, both were girls aged 12.The Shapiro−Wilk tests did not show significant deviation from the normality of the data within the four comparisons of percentage salivary cortisol changes, that is, The salivary cortisol levels decreased significantly during the first clinical examination both in the presence of the therapy dog (