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Dental TribuneAsia Pacific Edition | 9/2015 WORLD NEWS 03 By DTI LEICESTER, UK: In March 2005, a 38-year-old British soldier stationed in Germany lost his ability to form new memories after undergoing a regular root canal treatment. To this day, he is unable to remember any- thing for longer than 90 minutes, al- though his brain is completely intact andhesufferednotraumathatcould have caused the amnesia, according tohisdoctors. “I remember getting into the chair and the dentist inserting the local anaesthetic,”the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the BBC. Since that moment, he remembers nothing.Everymorning,hewakesup thinking that he is still a soldier sta- tionedinGermanyin2005,waitingto visitthedentistforrootcanalsurgery. The German dentist only realised after the treatment, which was with- out complications, that something was wrong with the patient. He was pale, disoriented and struggled to stand up. As his condition did not improve, he was brought to hospital where he stayed for several days. In the beginning, he was not able to re- member anything for longer than a fewminutes. Thedoctors’firstsuspicionwasthat a bad reaction to the anaesthetic had causedabrainhaemorrhage.However, theycouldnotfindanyevidenceofin- jury.Finally,thepatientandhisfamily returnedtoEngland,whereDrGerald Burgess, a clinical psychologist from Leicester,tookoverthecase. According to Burgess, a form of anterograde amnesia would have been the most obvious explanation for the man’s condition. In this case, thehippocampi,thebrainregionsre- sponsible for the consolidation of in- formation from short-term memory to long-term memory, are damaged so that memories can no longer be formed and stored correctly. Yet, the man’s brain scans showed no ab- normalities. Thus, another possible explanation would have been a psy- chogenic illness. Burgess conducted detailed psychiatric assessments in order to determine whether the man had suffered any trauma. However, Burgess found that his patient was emotionally healthy and his wife confirmed that there had not been anytraumaticeventsintheman’slife priortohisdentistvisitin2005. Burgess continues to research his patient’s rare case of amnesia, cur- rently suspecting that the brain’s synapses might play an important role. Each time a memory is formed and transferred to long-term mem- ory, the synapses are rebuilt, which involves the production of new pro- teins.Thisproteinsynthesismightbe blockedinthecaseofBurgess’patient, keeping him from generating any new long-term memories. In order to further research his hypothesis, Burgess is examining five similar cases of mysterious memory loss withoutbraindamagefromthemed- ical literature. These cases might pro- vide an answer to why the root canal treatment appears to have triggered theman’smemoryloss.Allofthecases are in some way related to a period of psychological stress during a med- ical emergency.“It could be a genetic predisposition that needs a catalyst event to start the process,” Burgess toldtheBBC. “One of our reasons for writing up this individual’s case was that we had never seen anything like this before in our assessment clinics, and we do not know what to make of it, but felt anhonestreportingofthefactsaswe assessed them was warranted, that perhaps there will be other cases, or people who know more than we do about what might have caused the patient’samnesia,”Burgessstated. The case report by Burgess, titled “Profound anterograde amnesia fol- lowing routine anesthetic and dental procedure:Anewclassificationofam- nesia characterized by intermediate- to-late-stage consolidation failure?”, waspublishedonlineintheNeurocase journalon15May. IPS e.max® PRESS MULTI THE WORLD’S FIRST POLYCHROMATIC PRESS INGOT • Monolithic LS2 restorations showing a lifelike shade progression • Exceptional combination of strength, esthetics and efficiency • For crowns, veneers and hybrid abutment crowns • Coordinated with high-precision Programat press furnaces • Maximum cost effectiveness in the press technique all ceramic all you need www.ivoclarvivadent.com Ivoclar Vivadent AG Bendererstr. 2 | 9494 Schaan | Liechtenstein | Tel.: +423 235 35 35 | Fax: +423 235 33 60 LIFELIKE ESTHETICS – EFFICIENTLY PRESSED AD Case of amnesia linked to root canal treatment DTAP0915_03_Root 08.09.15 09:30 Seite 1 Bendererstr. 2 | 9494 Schaan | Liechtenstein | Tel.: +4232353535 | Fax: +4232353360 DTAP0915_03_Root 08.09.1509:30 Seite 1