New Findings on Burning Mouth Syndrome

Findings from a dissertation at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gotenburg in Sweden, provides a clearer picture on burning mouth syndrome. The dissertation “On Characteristics of Burning Mouth Syndrome Patients,” is part of a larger project aimed at finding a model for burning mouth syndrome that can facilitate diagnosis and treatment in the future.

In her work Shikha Acharya, PhD, connected clinical findings and self-reported reported findings from questionnaires from patients with burning mouth syndrome about their symptoms and background along with saliva-related factors. The results have been compared with a gender- and age-matched control group. She reports 45% of burning mouth syndrome patients reported to have altered taste sensations. A total of 73% experienced pain that was burning or stinging or a combination of the two, but stinging and numbness also occurred.

In addition to burning mouth syndrome, study participants have a higher incidence of other types of diseases, use more medications, are more prone to grinding their teeth and report more allergies than the control group. Advanced analyses show that burning mouth syndrome was strongly associated to self-reported skin diseases and subjective oral dryness.

Analysis of inflammatory constituents in saliva shows complex relationship between burning mouth syndrome and background inflammation, with some of the burning mouth syndrome patients having higher levels of inflammation than the control group while others had lower.