Pain and persistent occlusal awareness

Phantom bite: a case report and literature review

“…15 The loss or change of occlusal input may cause similar cause deafferentation effects in the thalamus and cerebral cortex, and lead the patient to feel sensations of occlusal awareness. 16 The hypothesis that pre-existing occlusal hyperawareness is due to alterations in proprioceptive input transmission underlies the etiology of phantom bite has been supported by Klineberg 17,18 in 1991, Green and Gelb 19 in 1994, and Clark et al 20,21 in two review articles that were published in 2003 and 2005. This hypothesis was tested by Baba et al, 22 who compared eight occlusal dysesthesia (OD) patients to 31 healthy subjects, using a tactile sensation test that involved 8-and 12-mm-thick aluminum foil and a thickness discrimination task that used bite blocks.…”

Psychiatric comorbidities and psychopharmacological outcomes of phantom bite syndrome

“…Leon-Salazar et al [15] suggested that PBS may result from neural reorganization induced by a noxious stimulus, such as a dental treatment. Despite change or loss of occlusal input, cerebral regions involved in occlusal proprioception may remain unchanged and retain their function.…”

“…They nomadically visit various dentists seeking "bite correction" because of their strong belief in dental treatment despite possible symptom exacerbation [1]. PBS has been regarded as a psychiatric disorder [1,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]related to paranoia, personality disorder, or somatoform disorder, while some authors have suggested proprioceptive dysfunction, false peripheral feed-back [12], or phantom occlusal sensation in the central nervous system [13][14][15][16][17] as possible etiologies. However, little is known about its psychiatric comorbidities [10,18].…”

Occlusal dysesthesia: a topical narrative review

“…The main symptom and the major focus of patients with OD is bite discomfort ; such discomfort is usually associated with emotional distress . Patients often use expressions like ‘my bite is not comfortable’ , ‘my bite is off’ , ‘I don't know where my teeth belong anymore’ , ‘my jaws are not biting correctly’ , ‘I feel my bite wrong, my jaws are always wandering around looking for a comfortable position’ , or generally describe their bite as uneven.…”

“…Those symptoms can occur isolated, but can also be associated with comorbid conditions such as TMD , tooth clenching , anxiety , depression , obsessive compulsive tendencies , and somatoform disorder .…”