Aromatherapy with essential oils to reduce anxiety, pain, and discomfort during in-office dental procedures: A scoping review.

OBJECTIVES

To map, analyze, and summarize the available clinical evidence on the use of aromatherapy with essential oils to manage anxiety and pain during dental procedures, and to identify gaps and directions for future research.

METHODS

This scoping review followed the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology and the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Clinical trials from any year and language that assessed whether aromatherapy reduced anxiety or pain in dental settings were included. Studies without a control group were excluded. Searches were conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Embase in June 2025.

RESULTS

Twenty clinical trials involving 3460 participants were included. Eleven essential oils were investigated, with lavender being the most frequently studied (n = 13). Most studies assessing anxiety reported favorable trends associated with aromatherapy (n = 17), whereas studies evaluating pain generally reported no significant differences between groups (n = 7). Substantial heterogeneity was observed regarding intervention protocols, delivery methods, dosages, and outcome measures. Only one study employed an olfactory control, limiting interpretation of whether observed effects were attributable to essential oils or to odor masking in the dental environment.

CONCLUSIONS

Aromatherapy with essential oils might demonstrate potential to reduce anxiety during dental care. However, its validation in dentistry requires greater methodological standardization and the inclusion of olfactory control groups.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Aromatherapy may offer potential benefits as an adjunctive approach to improve patient experience, particularly anxiety-related outcomes, during dental care; however, current evidence remains heterogeneous and inconclusive.