ESSENTIAL OILS IN ORAL SURGERY

Talk about misinfodemics! (J Oral Maxillofac Surg 77:2466.e1-2466.e7, 2019). Ok, now please do not berate me and bombard me with all kinds of opine-blasts. I understand how sensitive many of you are about your essential oils and the proclaimed medical benefits of these. I do recognize that there are certainly many essential oils, especially aromatics, which have been studied appropriately and have been shown to have therapeutic effects. It is just that the fact that if an individual derives a therapeutic effect from an essential oil (or for that matter snake oil) does not make it true for all people – or even for a few people.

Home remedies are great and the use of home remedies has its place in both the lexicon of medical care and the day-to-day treatment of disease. It is just that we should never confuse the difference between “state of the art – peer reviewed” practices and those practices which are just conjecture and even incorrect or dangerous. I am the first to see the historical truth that as medicine progresses we find that some of the same practices we felt were “true” and “well studied” became archaic and replaced by “new” breakthroughs in medical care.

You are likely reading this blog on the internet which has been one of the greatest advancements in medicine. We all have ready access to the knowledge base on most all problems, diseases, and treatments. Unfortunately, as much information that is out there is disinfodemics and may guide us toward incorrect or even bad decisions.

That gets me back to the article I am blogging about. The article tells about the use of lavender oil inhalation on reducing presurgical anxiety. Now truly, I am sure there is a subset of individuals who may benefit from this. The article refutes this and concludes that it did not have that anxiolytic effect. What mainly disturbed me is that the authors as well as this medical journal found it fit to report on this subject at all. It shows me that we have regressed in the pages of our medical and surgical journals to the evaluation of things that should be taking place in research and development settings.