Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS)

What is Burning Mouth Syndrome?

Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS) also known as "Glossodynia" ca be described as a hot feeling or sensation of tongue, lips, palate, or any part of the mouth. Alterations in nerve messenger pathways may be a cause to this initiating the feeling of pain or burning.

Some possible causes of BMS include:

Hormone changes, immune disorder, stress, anxiety or depression, damaged nerves, reaction to chemicals, ill fitting dentures.

Symptoms:
Some have a constant burning feeling and for some, it increases in the second half of the day. Also people have associated numbness or tingling of mouth or tongue, metallic taste and dry or sore mouth.

Treatment:

It depends on the cause. Sometimes counselling with lose dose antidepressants is done or medications for dry/sore mouth or drugs for hormonal change management or replacing poor fit dentures. Other options include yoga, medidation and breathing exercises to soothe down their anxiety levels.

The symptoms can be controlled a bit at home by: frequently sipping water, having sugarfree chewing gums to increase salivation, avoiding tobacco and alcohol, sucking ice cubes, avoiding spicy food