Evaluating the Etiologies of Burning Mouth Symptom in Patients of Shiraz Dental School from 2007 to 2015

Background Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS) is a burning sensation of the oral mucosa without any sign of mucosal abnormality for which no medical or dental cause can be detected. However, this syndrome belongs to a broader category of patients whose main complaint is mouth burning and, so, their etiologies can largely vary. Objectives This study investigates the prevalence of burning mouth symptom for the first time in an institutional group of patients in Shiraz, Iran, among whom some were found to have BMS through excluding the recognizable physical or biochemical causes of mouth burning. Methods In this cross sectional study, from the existing records of 2 533 patients who referred to Shiraz Dental School since 2007 To 2015, a total number of 298 patients with the chief complaint of oral burning sensation were chosen. For each patient age, sex, etiology, and site of pain were recorded. Results Analysis revealed that amongst 298 individuals who suffered from burning sensation of the oral mucosa, the female/male ratio was 3 to 1; and local factors were found as the primary cause for the symptom development in a large proportion of the patients (63.5%). Followed by systemic diseases with a much less contribution to cause the symptom (22.8%). A number of 8.4% of the patients were idiopathic and 5.4% suffered from psychological disorders. Tongue was the most frequent location of burning (37.2%). Overall, only 25 patients (< 1%) who were mostly elderly (P < 0.001) had idiopathic BMS. The burning localization in the idiopathic cases was more likely to be reported as generalized than that in the cases with recognizable causes (P < 0.001). Conclusions The results of this study show that oral burning is mostly caused by the factors recognized during examination and that the idiopathic form or BMS known as a neuropathic pain is uncommon. Understanding the prevalence of the etiologic factors in certain populations would lead to a better diagnostic approach to BMS through the exclusion of those factors.