Treating Burning Mouth Syndrome: a special topic from our Dental Health issue.
Dr. John Svirsky, an oral and maxillofacial pathologist at VCU.
If you have ever scalded the roof of your mouth, you know how it feels to suffer from burning mouth syndrome (BMS).
Affecting 4 percent of the population, it is most prevalent among menopausal women, though it can affect men and women of any age. Symptoms are exactly what you imagine: The tongue, cheeks and roof of the mouth suffer varying degrees of burning sensation for a few hours, or even for months at a time. For any patient affected by the disease, says Dr. John Svirsky (pictured above), an oral and maxillofacial pathologist at VCU, “it’s an aggravation.”
Although there appears to be no singular cause of BMS, oral infection specialists like Svirksy have identified a variety of symptom agitators from dry mouth and spicy foods to the HSV-1 virus, which causes cold sores. Treatments for the HSV-1 virus have been shown to correct the symptoms of burning mouth syndrome in patients testing positive for the virus. For patients who do not have HSV-1, doctors have found success using the drug amitriptyline, which was used in the 1970s and ’80s as an anti-depressant, but which specifically targets and alleviates pain resulting from BMS.
“If you control dryness, you definitely can see some improvement,” explains Svirsky. Oral lubricants, as well as dietary supplements, iron, zinc and vitamin B12, and discontinued use of whitening or tartar control products also help.
