2003 Volume 43 Issue 2 Pages 137-143
Cenesthopathy causes strange sensations at various places on the body, and not rarely do symptoms occur inside the mouth cavity (oral cenesthopathy). In such cases, the patients seek medical care from a dentist. We studied dental treatments that were considered to have caused the onset of cenesthopathy symptoms, in 21 cases diagnosed as oral cenesthopathy at the psychiatry department after undergoing medical examinations at the Psychosomatic Dentistry Center of a hospital affiliated with Nippon Dental University. The results were as follows. In 16 of the 21 cases, dental treatment was believed to have caused the onset of symptoms. Most of the precipitating treatments were prosthetic in nature or tooth extractions. The treatments were done mostly to the molar teeth. In addition more than half of the cases had received treatments for multiple teeth. These findings indicate that changes in the sensation of occlusion and mastication can be related to the onset of cenesthopathy symptoms. In cases where symptoms were not attributable to dental treatments, and in those where symptoms were located elsewhere besides the treated site, the symptoms were experienced over a wide region, described as "the entire oral cavity." It was also found that much more symptoms occurred on the left side, compared with on the right.
