Burning Mouth Syndrome
Burning Mouth Syndrome
Burning mouth syndrome is a situation, in which the affected person may experience scalding sensation or pain in the palate, lips, tongue or on the whole mouth. This may occur without any specific reason. This disease is also called scalded mouth syndrome, burning lips syndrome, stomatodynia, glossodynia etc. Burning mouth syndrome may affect any people but it is more common in women of middle age and older age.
Causes of Burning Mouth Syndrome
There are a number of causes that leads to burning mouth syndrome and most of the sufferers experience multiple causes. Dry mouth which is the result of aging or medications like antihistamines, antidepressants may leads to burning sensations in the mouth. Certain materials that are used in dentures may irritate the oral tissues and thus cause burning sensation in the mouth. Allergy towards food, medicine, dyes etc may also cause this disease. Oral yeast infection which can be a result of denture use, use of some medication or diseases like diabetes may also cause this disease.
In certain other cases nutritional deficiency like the lack of vitamin B2, B12, B6, B1, B9, zinc, iron etc may cause trouble to the tissues in the mouth and cause burning mouth. Certain psychological factors like depression, emotional disorders, fear, anxiety may also result in burning mouth. Any damage to the nerve that controls the pain and taste in the tongue may also cause burning mouth. Similarly acid reflux of the stomach, endocrine disorders, hormonal imbalance during menopause, hypothyroidism etc may also cause burning mouth.
Symptoms of Burning Mouth
The affected person may experience a burning pain on the gums, lips, tongue, throat, palate etc. Many people have a burned feeling of having a very hot liquid in their mouth. Most of the people experience a itchy dry mouth that has a burning sensation in the initial period. Slowly they may develop other symptoms like numbness at the tongue tip along with some metallic or bitter taste. Certain people experience constant pain while others have a pain that disappears after having a good sleep and may reappear after some time during the day.
Whenever you have any of these symptoms for a continuous period then check the cause with your doctor.
