ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the views of a range of practical people - either professionals such as surgeons, psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers, or those who have conducted field research only -predominantly psychologists. The professional disciplines represented are numerous; hence the principal focus of the papers is widely varied. Although the typology may be of use to professionals other than oral surgeons, there is an assumption made that the oral surgeon alone will carry out the assessment, and there is little reference to the team approach described elsewhere in the literature. Valuable insights are provided, both into the disorder, and into professional responses to it. The chapter provides very practical guidance to professionals, principally to the effect that counselling should be conducted both before and after surgery, ranging from ensuring that the patient is fully aware of what is happening to him or her, through to the treatment of severe abreactions.
