Lavender In The Dental Office

A study done recently in London on 340 dental patients determined that the scent of lavender has a significant impact on the anxiety of patients while waiting for their scheduled dentist appointments.

Half of the patients in the study were exposed to the scent of lavender that came from warmed lavender oil in the waiting room and the other half were not. The entire study took place over a four week period in a regular clinic and every patient was given a questionnaire to assess their current level of anxiety while waiting.

The results - Those exposed to the scent reported anxiety levels averaging 7.4 compared an average level 10.4 for those not exposed to the scent, a substantial difference. Interestingly though, the anxiety level measured was regarding how they felt about their current dentist appointment and the anxiety-reducing affect was not found when discussing future dentist appointments.