Body Dysmorphic Disorder in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) may be related to the appearance of a body part or may sometimes arise from concerns about a body function. Currently, this disorder was included in contemporary classification systems with DSM-5. The majority of BDD patients first consult dermatologists, surgeons, and more often plastic surgeons, rather than psychiatrists. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the prevalence of this disorder in the psychiatric society. The oral and maxillofacial region is highly associated with face deformities, and the patients with BDD are applying to those clinics even without self-awareness of their disorders. It has been reported that most of the orthognathic surgical patients are associated with the facial appearance of surgical motivations and will have similar psychological motivations to cosmetic surgery patients. Moreover, the orthodontics, prosthetic and restorative dentistry are the branches of dentistry that mostly the patients come with esthetic complaints. Studies on BDD have not yet received the value they deserve concerning the prevalence and severity. Researches in dentistry and oral and maxillofacial surgery are much less, and the individuals suffering from BDD are not well-known among dentists/oral and maxillofacial surgeons; therefore, the frequency of BDD patients is not noticed and treated properly.