Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is characterized as a chronic burning sensation in the oral cavity without any organic abnormalities and is often accompanied with complaints about taste alteration. The aim of this study was to investigate gustatory sensation and the interaction between taste stimulation and clinical characteristics including pain sensation in patients with BMS.
This was a retrospective clinical study involving 50 new outpatients with BMS for whom the following data were completely collected: sex, age, duration of illness, pain intensity at first visit (initial visual analogue scale; initial VAS), stimulated saliva secretion, and the results of taste examinations and psychological examinations.
Among the 50 patients (40 females, 10 males, mean age: 59.5±15.0 years old), 28 patients (56.0%) complained of taste alteration, 32 patients (64.0%) showed normal gustatory sensation by the paper disc taste examination and 44 patients (88.0%) did so by the whole mouth taste examination. Weak negative interactions were observed as follows: between the taste intensity of sweet, sour, and salty solutions with moderate concentration and duration of illness; between the taste intensity of sweet, sour, and bitter solutions with moderate to high concentration and saliva secretion; between the taste intensity of salty and bitter solutions and the scores of self-rating depression scale; and between the taste intensity of sweet and salty solutions and the scores of the short intolerance of uncertainty scale. There was no significant interaction between taste intensity and complaints of taste alteration, age and initial VAS. Moreover, 23 patients (46.0%) showed pain alteration by taste stimuli with significantly lower detecting thresholds of all four basic tastes in the paper disc taste examination and significantly higher pain intensity with salty, sour and bitter solutions compared to the patients without pain alteration.
In the present study, most patients showed normal gustatory sensation despite their complaints of taste alteration. The taste intensity was affected by the duration of illness, saliva secretion, depression and intolerance of uncertainty; moreover, the pain intensity seemed to be exacerbated by salty, sour and bitter taste stimuli. These results suggest that the gustatory and pain sensations in BMS interact in a complex manner involving physiological, neurological and psychological factors.
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