Acupuncture eases dental patient anxiety

A report from the BMJ shows #acupuncture eases the anxiety of nervous dental patients. Dr Palle Rosted, who led the research, said the findings were extremely promising. A brief acupuncture treatment, involving just two points, was administered to the patients prior to them seeing their dentist. Results showed a significant decrease in anxiety.

"These were patients who would have previously run screaming out of the door or would have to have been held down by a dental assistant to have their teeth checked." added Dr Rosted. On previous dental visits, three of the patients had to be knocked out with a general anaesthetic to cope with their fears, while six others had needed strong sedatives.

The story was picked up by numerous news sources and has also been reported by, amongst others, the NHS, BBC, Channel 4, Telegraph and Independent (source: BMJ Acupuncture in Medicine).

Acupuncture eases anxiety

Doctors sometimes joke that when children have surgery, their parents may need sedatives, too.

"Usually, high-anxiety parents have high-anxiety kids," said Dr Shuming Wang, an anesthesiologist at the Yale School of Medicine.

But in a study, Dr Wang and her colleagues report on another approach, acupuncture. Simple devices resembling thumbtacks attached to the ear significantly reduce parents' anxiety, they reported (from New York Times).