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Evidence summaries

Interventions for Burning Mouth Syndrome

There is insufficient evidence on the effectiveness of any interventions for the burning mouth syndrome. Level of evidence: "D"

A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included 23 studies with a total of 1 121 subjects. Interventions were categorised as: antidepressants and antipsychotics, anticonvulsants, benzodiazepines, cholinergics, dietary supplements, electromagnetic radiation, physical barriers, psychological therapies, and topical treatments. Overall quality of the evidence for effectiveness was very low for all interventions and all outcomes.

For short-term symptom relief, there is very low-quality evidence of benefit from electromagnetic radiation (one RCT, 58 participants), topical benzodiazepines (two RCTs, 111 participants), physical barriers (one RCT, 50 participants), and anticonvulsants (one RCT, 100 participants). For long-term symptom relief, there is very low-quality evidence of a benefit from psychological therapies (one RCT, 30 participants), capsaicin oral rinse (topical treatment) (one RCT, 18 participants), and topical benzodiazepines (one RCT, 66 participants).

Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by sparse data and severe limitations in study quality.

References

  • McMillan R, Forssell H, Buchanan JA et al. Interventions for treating burning mouth syndrome. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2016;(11):CD002779. [PubMed]

Primary/Secondary Keywords