Psychosomatic disorders are characterized by the presence of physical symptoms due to mental or emotional factors. In dentistry, six groups of psychosomatic disorders have been evidenced – pain-related disorders, disorders related to altered oral sensation, disorders induced by neurotic habits, autoimmune disorders, disorders caused by altered perception of dentofacial form and function, and miscellaneous disorders. The current paper reviews the literature regarding the prevalence and basic clinical characteristics of psychosomatic disorders affecting the mouth and the maxillo-facial area, as well as their prevention and treatment directions. PubMed/Medline and Google Scholar electronic databases were used for article selection. A total of 83 sources were identified during the 1924-2018 period. Of these, 77(92.8%) corresponded to the aim of the present paper, as 63 of them (81.8%) presented detailed description of etiology, pathophysiology, clinical signs, and management oral psychosomatic disorders. As this review focused on pain-related psychosomatic disorders, a total of 21 (33.3%) articles were included, of which ten discussed myofascial pain disfunction syndrome (MPDS), four articles – atypical facial pain, four – atypical odontogenic pain, and three papers – phantom pain. Given that many dentists consider only the physical explanation of the diseases, while the psychological factors that provoke certain conditions are often rejected, ideas of psychosomatic medicine and of a person-centered holistic approach to patient care need to be addressed.
Keywords:- dentistry
- oral health
- psychosomatic disorders