Meskin L H
J Am Dent Assoc. 1996 Apr;127(4):418, 420. doi: 10.14219/jada.archive.1996.0217.
It's called Munchausen's syndrome, after an 18th-century German soldier known for fabricating fabulous stories. Most clinical descriptions of this intriguing oddity are found in the medical literature, although examples of patients feigning dental diseases also have been documented.