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Can lavender oil inhalation help to overcome dental anxiety and pain in children? A randomized clinical trial

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Abstract

Aromatherapy with essential oils can be used to relieve children. The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlations between psychological and physiologic findings after lavender oil inhalation among children assigned to undergo tooth extraction. A total of 126 children aged between 6 and 12 years were enrolled in the study. The groups were randomly divided into control and lavender groups. The lavender group inhaled 100% lavender oil for 3 min before the interventions, the control group received no prior application. Psychological assessments were made using face image scale (FIS), Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability (FLACC) and Wong-Baker pain rating scale (WBS). Physiologic changes were assessed using vital signs evaluations. All parameters were noted prior to applications, after inhalation, anesthesia injection, and tooth extraction. The lavender group showed significant lower anxiety and pain scores after tooth extraction (p < 0.05). Significantly lower levels of blood pressures and a significant pulse rate drop were found after inhalation in the lavender group. A statistically significant increase in heart rate was observed after anesthesia injection and tooth extraction in the control group (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Lavender oil can be preferred as a treatment of choice in routine pediatric dentistry.

Trial registration number: NCT04115891 (Lavender Oil Inhalation Help to Overcome Dental Anxiety Among Children)

What is Known:

Dental anxiety is the most common factor that causes children to have difficulty with the dentist and their parents during treatment.

Aromatherapy with essential oils can be used to relieve children.

What is New:

Aromatherapy with lavender oil relieves the child by reducing the level of anxiety and facilitates dental treatment.

During surgical procedures such as local anesthesia and tooth extraction, lavender oil inhalation decreases pain levels of children.

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Abbreviations

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

FIS:

Face image scale

FLACC:

Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability

SPSS:

Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

WBS:

Wong-Baker pain rating scale

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Funding

This study was funded by researchers.

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

IA, SA, NBK designed the research. IA and SA collected the data, IA analyzed the data. IA, SA, NBK wrote and edited the paper. All authors approved the final version

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ipek Arslan.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from guardians of all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Communicated by Peter de Winter

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Arslan, I., Aydinoglu, S. & Karan, N.B. Can lavender oil inhalation help to overcome dental anxiety and pain in children? A randomized clinical trial. Eur J Pediatr 179, 985–992 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-020-03595-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-020-03595-7

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