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Diagnosis and management of burning mouth syndrome

8 mins read Oral health and mouth cancer
Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is characterised by a continuous painful burning sensation in an oral cavity that appears clinically normal. The burning sensation may affect more than one oral site with the anterior two-thirds of the tongue, the hard palate and the lower lip mucosa being most frequentl

Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is a complex disorder characterised by symptoms of burning, which may be localised or generalised within the oral cavity. The burning sensations are often spontaneous and intense as if the mouth or tongue has been scalded or is on fire (Maltsman-Tseikhin et al. 2007).

For some patients, it is possible to link their symptoms with other conditions. Some of the more common causes of burning mouth symptoms (Cerchiari et al. 2006) are listed in Table 1 overleaf. If a cause can be identified the disorder is referred to as secondary BMS (Suarez and Clark, 2007). In the event of no cause of symptoms being identified, primary or idiopathic BMS may be diagnosed.

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