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NetWellness provides the highest quality health information and education services created and evaluated by faculty of our partner universities.
Monday, May 12, 2008
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NetWellness provides the highest quality health information and education services created and evaluated by faculty of our partner universities.
Monday, May 12, 2008
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Burning mouth syndrome is a fairly common disorder. People affected by it experience abnormal sensations of the mouth (burning sensation of the tongue) as well as alterations in taste and mouth texture. It is a poorly understood condition that most commonly affects post-menopausal females.
Although the cause of this disorder is not known, most of the evidence suggests that this is a minor (but annoying) problem with certain nerves (called sensory nerves) that supply information from the oral tissues, especially the tongue, roof of the mouth and lips, to the brain. This "misinformation" includes telling the brain that the mouth (especially the tongue) feels scalded ("burning" sensation), that bad tastes are present, or that the texture of the mouth is wrong (usually a "dry" feeling).
Much less frequently, burning tongue symptoms may be caused by oral yeast infection or certain rare types of anemia and these should be ruled out in order to make a diagnosis for burning mouth syndrome. If yeast infection of the mouth is suspected, it would have to be proven by doing a culture (swab) of the lining of the mouth. If yeast is present, the problem should be easily treated with antifungal medication.
Diagnosis of this condition can sometimes pose a problem because despite the presence of symptoms, when the mouth is examined, everything appears normal. This causes a great deal of confusion for the doctor who is not familiar with this condition. The best person to evaluate this problem would be an oral and maxillofacial pathologist.
There is no medically proven treatment for this condition, and none of the so-called "cures" for burning mouth have been shown to be any better than placebo ("sugar pill"). However, for about half of the people who get this problem, it goes away by itself after a period of time, although the amount of time varies from person to person and is unpredictable.
While it is an annoying condition, burning mouth syndrome typically is not progressive, does not represent a form of cancer, and cannot be transmitted to anyone else.
This article is a NetWellness exclusive. 
Last Reviewed: Jun 28, 2006
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Carl M. Allen, DDS, MSD Professor & Director, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery and Pathology Dental Faculty Practice Section of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology College of Dentistry The Ohio State University |
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John R. Kalmar, DMD, PhD Associate Professor Dental Faculty Practice Section of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology College of Dentistry The Ohio State University |
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