The term psychosomatic is derived from Greek word “psyche” (mind) and “soma” (body). A psychosomatic disorder is a disease which involves both mind and body. Sometimes mental and emotional factors may act as risk factor that could influence the initiation and progression of Oro-mucosal disorders.
When these psychological entities are not perceived properly, it may result in somatic disease due to conversion hysteria. Even the oral and paraoral structures show manifestations of these psychosomatic disorders.
Chronic pain, occlusal discomfort, burning mouth syndrome, atypical odontalgia, unexplained oral symptoms/syndromes (MUOS), phantom bite syndrome, oral cenesthopathy and halitophobia are the common oral symptoms seen in dentistry.
These symptoms are thought be the mental or emotional origin. This kind of psychosomatic manifestations is significantly high in dental patients. Dentist should be able to recognised various psychological and pathopsychological conditions and develop new and interdisciplinary approaches to dental management.
The present review has been done from text books and articles relevant to psychosomatic disorders. Relevant articles have been selected and filtered from databases using Mesh terms psychosomatic diseases, oral mucosal diseases, stress, etc., with Boolean operators from 1990 till date.
This review highlights the important aspects of the psychosomatic diseases affecting oral cavity.
Keywords: Conversion hysteria, Oro mucosal diseases, Psyche, Soma, Stress