A study found that a 2% sweet vanilla scent effectively distracted children aged 7-9 years, reducing injection pain during infiltration anesthesia for maxillary molars. The findings suggest that simple sensory interventions may help ease pediatric dental anxiety and discomfort.

Published in Journal of Integrative & Complementary Medicine (Shadman et al., 2025), the randomized, double-blind, controlled trial involved 48 children in need of local anesthesia for primary maxillary molars. The children were split into three groups: a control group with no scent, a group that received anesthesia in a room filled with 2% vanilla scent, and a group exposed to the vanilla scent for 30 seconds before injection. Pain was assessed using both subjective scales (Wong-Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale) an

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