Effect of Aromatherapy on Dental Anxiety and Pain in Children Undergoing Local Anesthetic Administrations: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Introduction: In dentistry, local anesthetic (LA) administration in children is often associated with behavioral problems. Hence, the present study evaluated the efficacy of aromatherapy in reducing the dental anxiety and pain during LA procedure.

Methods: This clinical trial was conducted upon 150 children in the age range of 8-12 years. Subjects were randomly divided into five groups; Group 1: Lavender essential oil using nebulizer; Group 2: Lavender essential oil using inhaler; Group 3: Orange essential oil using nebulizer; Group 4: Orange essential oil using inhaler; Group 5: Control (without aromatherapy). For all the children, baseline anxiety was recorded followed by aromatherapy (except for children in the control group). Following the standard protocol, LA was administered. The procedural pain was assessed using Faces, Legs, Activity, Cry and Consolability scale (FLACC) and Faces Pain Scale-Revised (FPS-R). Finally, anxiety was again recorded. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 17.0.

Results: A significant difference in ANOVA test was observed among anxiety scores after LA in aromatherapy groups 1, 3, and 4 compared to control. When the FLACC scores were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis, there were significantly lower values in aromatherapy groups compared to the control group. The pain scores, as reported in FPS-R, were also lower in aroma groups 1, 3, and 4.

Conclusion: Aromatherapy with lavender or sweet orange, using either nebulizer or inhaler, decreased the dental anxiety of children, whereas, only sweet orange could reduce the pain as self-reported by children.