Benefits of aromatherapy in dental patients

Researchers at King’s College London, in the UK have published their findings with lavender.

First, the details.

• 340 patients were assigned to a treatment group.
  • Lavender
  • No odor
• Then, anxiety was assessed while waiting for a scheduled dental appointment.
  • Current anxiety, assessed by the brief State Trait Anxiety Indicator (STAI-6)
  • Generalized dental anxiety, assessed by the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS)

And, the results.

• Both groups showed similar, moderate and significant levels of generalized anxiety.
• The lavender group reported significantly lower current anxiety than the control group.

The bottom line?

In 2008, the same authors published an abstract with positive results based on 4340 dental patients.

It’s not clear if these results are based on a sub group from that larger population of dental patients.

4/19/10 20:38 JR

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 14th, 2011 at 7:50 PM and is filed under Anxiety (Panic)/Depression, Aromatherapy, Lavender. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.