ETIOLOGY OF SOMATOFORM DISORDERS ASSOCIAT ED WITH DENTAL SUBSTANCES -CASE-STUDY AND AN EXPLANATORY MODEL DERIVED FROM BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE

During the last few years, dental amalgam has been made responsible fo r a number of somatic and psychological complaints which have been ide ntified, both by patients and physicians, as signs of mercury poisonin g. Despite the fact that neither clinical nor epidemiological studies justify this view, the number of patients with 'amalgam phobia' seems to increase steadily. From the perspective of behavioral medicine one can suggest that those psychological and somatic symptoms which amalga m phobic patients complain about are caused by psychological mechanism s as generally found in somatoform disorders. If so, the typical sympt oms of amalgam phobics should not be specific to dental amalgam, but w ill be similarly found with various dental materials. This paper sugge sts an explanatory model for the etiology of somatoform symptoms in co nnection with dental material.