**4.7 Atopic dermatitis**

Typical symptoms of atopic dermatitis are chronic eczema with an itching sensation. Serum IgE is generally increased in these patients, and there is a repeated advancement to remission of the symptoms. Intractable cases sometimes exhibit a positive reaction to a metal reagent when using the patch test. In such cases, removing the intraoral metal restorations that contain the allergy-positive metal could lead to a remission of the symptoms. Since the skin barrier function of atopic dermatitis patients is compromised and not enough to prevent infection and sensitization, metal allergies tend to complicate these types of cases.
