Estudio de una muestra de pacientes con síndrome de boca ardiente

Abstract

The burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is known since many years ago, but it is still difficult to be diagnosed and treated. The unique clinical manifestation is a kind of burning sensation on the oral mucosa, without any lesions justifying this symptom. It presents mainly in postmenopausal women, showing their discomfort during long periods. Burning mouth sensation can be accompanied by other sensitive alterations, like dryness or gustative changes. Objetives: To study a sample of BMS patients, describing the epidemiological factors, their diseases and drug consumption. Patients and methods: The sample was represented by 83 patients, consulting because their burning mouth sensation. All of them were accurately interrogated and examined and the data were registered in a protocol sheet. Results: 90.4% of patients were women and 9.6% were men. The mean of age was 64.9%. All the patients presented burning sensation on the tongue and 64% on the lips. The majority of the studied patients (76%) presented an evolution of the symptoms during more than 12 months; only 6% presented this evolution during less than 6 months. 52 (63%) of the 83 patients had psychological manifestations and more than the half of them consumed some psychoactive drug. Conclusions: Our sample of patients is comparable to those of other studies. BMS is more prevalent in postmenopausal women, presenting frequently anxiety and/or depression.