Frequency of chief complaints with mental origin and psychiatric disorders in patients referring to Mashhad Faculty of Dentistry in 2011

One of the most important challenges in diagnosis and treatment of dentistry patients is the management of the patients, who refer to dentists and physicians with various complaints with mental origin, having no convincing clinical finding. Incorrect diagnosis and treatment could cause some complications in patients’ physical and psychological conditions. This study aimed to assess chief complaints and psychiatric disorders among patients with mental origin complaints.

In a cross-sectional study, 132 patients with mental origin complaints were enrolled in our study as the case group, 132 patients with organic origin complaints were selected for the control group. Type of mental complaints was recorded and severity of mental complaints were evaluated by visual analogue scale (VAS). Both groups filled Symptom Checklist-90 (Scl-90) questionnaire for identifying of the psychiatric disorders. T-test, Chi-square and Pearson test were used for statistical analysis.

The most prevalent mental complaints in case group were pain without dental origin (33/33%), burning (16/66%) and atypical odontalgia (13/63%). The moderate severity of complaint was reported by the most patients. The most prevalent clinical diagnosis for the patients’ disorders was atypical facial pain. In the case group, 31.06% had psychiatric disorders, 53.78%were predisposed to psychiatric disorders. In the control group, 2.27% had psychiatric disorders and 28.03% were predisposed to psychiatric disorders.

The most common complaints with mental origin were pain (except odontalgia) and burning, if their psychiatric background be neglected, they could be misdiagnosed with dental pain and incorrect treatment performed. Most of patients, who suffered such complaints with mental origin, had some psychiatric disorders. Therefore, proper diagnosis of these mental complaints could be beneficial in diagnosis and suitable treatments of psychiatric problems.