Burning Mouth Syndrome

Burning mouth syndrome is the medical term for ongoing (chronic) or recurrent burning in the mouth without an obvious cause. The discomfort may affect your tongue, gums, lips, inside of your cheeks, roof of your mouth or widespread areas of your whole mouth. Burning mouth syndrome appears suddenly and can be severe, as if you scalded your mouth.

Unfortunately, the cause of burning mouth syndrome often can't be determined. Although that makes treatment more difficult, don't despair. By working closely with your health care team, you can often get burning mouth syndrome under better control.

Symptoms of burning mouth syndrome may include:

• A burning sensation that most commonly affects your tongue, but may also affect your lips, gums, palate, throat or whole mouth
• A sensation of dry mouth with increased thirst
• Taste changes, such as a bitter or metallic taste
• Loss of taste

The discomfort from burning mouth syndrome typically has several different patterns. It may occur every day, with little discomfort when you wake, but become worse as the day progresses. Or it may start as soon as you wake up and last all day. Or discomfort may come and go.

In addition to medical treatment and prescription medications, self-help measures may improve your symptoms. You may find these beneficial for reducing chronic mouth discomfort:

• Drink more fluids, to help ease the feeling of dry mouth, but avoid carbonated beverages.
• Don't use tobacco products.
• Avoid alcohol and products with alcohol, as they may irritate the lining of your mouth.
• Avoid products with cinnamon or mint.
• Avoid spicy-hot foods.
• Avoid acidic foods and liquids, such as tomatoes, orange juice, soft drinks and coffee.
• Try different mild or flavor-free brands of toothpaste, such as one for sensitive teeth or one without mint or cinnamon.
• Take steps to reduce excessive stress.

Often burning mouth syndrome can be directly attributed to the nervous system going haywire.  

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