Abstract
Burning mouth syndrome （BMS） and oral candidiasis are common conditions among patients reporting tongue pain. While these diseases can occur independently, they sometimes present concomitantly. However, the clinical characteristics of such concomitant cases have not been well documented. In this study, we analyzed 211 patients diagnosed with BMS and treated at our department over the past nine years. The patients were divided into two groups: 71 patients with concomitant oral candidiasis, confirmed by a positive Candida cultivation test at their first visit, and 140 patients with isolated BMS, confirmed by a negative Candida cultivation test.
Comparing background factors, the concomitant group was significantly older and more likely to report pain when ingesting stimulants, subjective dry mouth, and higher visual analog scale score for tongue pain at their first visit compared to the isolated BMS group （p＜0.05）. However, multivariate analysis, using oral candidiasis as the dependent variable and these factors as explanatory variables, identified age as the only significant factor. The concomitant group demonstrated a significantly worse prognosis than the isolated BMS group. However, the prognosis was not influenced by treatment approaches for candidiasis or the presence or absence of Candida eradication. Furthermore, no difference in prognosis was observed between the two groups depending on the BMS treatment.
These findings indicate that when BMS occurs concomitantly with oral candidiasis, the prognosis is poorer. However, associated factors, such as the nature of tongue pain, tend to be similar to those of BMS. This similarity makes diagnosis challenging based only on medical history or physical examination, emphasizing the importance of Candida cultivation testing.
