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Abstract

Dental professionals have made remarkable progress on the better understanding of oral diseases and the more developed clinical technology for the prevention and treatment of it. However, anxiety of visiting dentist has been considered a factor beyond the capability of dentist to control over. Nevertheless, it was evidenced that dental anxiety is a powerful underlying factor determining the prevalence and prognosis of oral diseases. Deteriorated chewing function is closely linked with the diminished food choice that is one of the strongest environmental challenges to the survival of humans. Change of social activity due to the unacceptable aesthetic as well as speaking function of oral system is a critical challenge to humans, the very complicatedly net-worked social beings. Amygdala, a brain region specializing in facial recognition, displays exaggerated responses to the unfamiliar face of dentist that is processed as an attacker to threaten the security and safety. Directly, psychosocial stress due to the deteriorated daily function of oral system can increase the pro-inflammatory level of cytokine IL-6. As an indirect pathway, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) is activated by the stress. Key hormone secreted by adrenal gland such as cortisol acts on immune cells and suppresses the immune systems, which aggravates the already present oral diseases. The vicious cycle can be interrupted by changing amygdala�s process of the unfamiliar face of dentist. Based on the fact that seeing fearful or angry or unfamiliar face invoke stress reactivity in the amygdala results in avoidance of dental utilization, solutions for patient�s avoidance behavior can be inferred.

Biography

Email: ebdent@snu.ac.kr