Behavioral dentistry: a renewed paradigm for the future.
The clinical field of behavioral medicine has become firmly entrenched as an indispensable part of modern health care. From a biopsychosocial perspective, susceptibility to disease invokes a powerful mix of complex factors beyond biology. Behavioral pathogens can be identified which cause us to get sick, stay sick, and resist sound treatment. Biopsychosocially based scientific inquiry can contribute to a more enriched understanding of fear of dental procedures, management of pain, prevention of oral malignancy, and changing patterns in availability of dental care. Dentistry will need to take new directions in research to understand behavioral and psychosocial factors as well as biologic factors that promote and contribute to health and disease.
Dworkin
S F
SF
Department of Oral Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.
D001519:Behavior; D001525:Behavioral Sciences; D001695:Biology; D016854:Dental Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D003729:Dental Care; D003813:Dentistry; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control; D010146:Pain / Q000517:prevention & control; D011584:Psychology; D012961:Sociology