Abstract
The first disease that comes to a dentist’s mind during diagnosis is thought to be due to intuition. It is a function of “system one,” the area of the brain responsible for the storage of short-term memories. On the other hand, “system two” is responsible for analytical thinking that follows a logical thought process. This area functions during hypothesis formation to create a list of differential diagnoses based on the patient’s history and during hypothesis verification to examine the probability of the patient having a disease from that list. However, its disadvantage is that it takes time. The dual process theory describes the cognitive process of clinical reasoning as an interaction between the fast, subconscious “system one” and time-based, conscious “system two”. This theory is based on the idea that it is useful to think using both systems simultaneously to solve problems. However, it has been found that this leads to the occurrence of a variety of cognitive errors. Dentists should be familiar with the cognitive processes involved in diagnosis and take measures to prevent and correct errors.
