Burning Mouth Syndrome
Tests, Causes and Treatment Options
John Smith MA
M Awad MD (Ed.)
Smashwords Edition
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Copyright 2011 John Smith MA, M Awad MD
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Contents
One: What is Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS)?
Four: Meeting the doctor for BMS
Five: Tests and diagnosis of BMS
Appendix A: Internet Resources / Further Reading
One: What is Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS)?
Burning mouth syndrome – also known as burning tongue or orodynia -- is a condition where you feel a burning sensation in your mouth. This pain can affect many parts of your mouth like the lips, tongue and gums. It may cause pain in the roof of your mouth or its walls. In some cases, it may even affect your throat.
According to doctors, this condition is a result of a neuropathic disorder. This means that your nerves start to malfunction. They don’t send the correct information to the brain or don’t process brain’s signals correctly. The result is that you have a burning sensation in your mouth all the time.
There are no definite causes known which result in burning mouth syndrome. It can be a result of some other underlying mouth disease or a physical medical disorder. However, with proper care and medication, this condition can be controlled.
The condition is much more prevalent among women than men. In fact, women have a seven times greater risk of suffering from it than men. Also, burning mouth syndrome mostly occurs in middle age people. It occurs less often in young people. About one million people in the U.S. alone are affected by this condition.
Burning mouth syndrome is also given a number of other names such as scalded mouth syndrome, glossodynia, stomatodynia, burning tongue syndrome and burning lips syndrome.
Although no clear causes are known for this condition, doctors suggest that it may be a result of other diseases. These include:
Diabetes mellitus. It has not been proven that diabetes mellitus causes burning mouth syndrome. But doctors think that there’s a high chance that a relationship exists between diabetes mellitus and burning mouth syndrome (BMS). So if you are diabetic and also suffer from BMS, your doctor will suggest you to take very good care of your diabetes. Lipoic acid is helpful for diabetics and some doctors think that it may be helpful in treating BMS.
Xerostomia, a condition which causes dry mouth due to low saliva production. It is a common condition in older people. It starts when the salivary glands start to malfunction and do not produce normal amounts of saliva. This make you feel as if your mouth is very dry. Dry mouth is sometimes an outcome of using certain medications. About 400 drugs are said to cause this condition, e.g., anticholinergic and sympathomimetics.