Characteristics in Patients with Burning Mouth Syndrome and Trigeminal Neuralgia

Objectives: This study compared pain intensity and psychosocial characteristics between patients with Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS) and trigeminal neuralgia (TN). Methods: Data from 282 patients with BMS and 83 patients with TN were analyzed. Patients reported the duration of illness, with duration <6 months defined as “acute” and >6 months as “chronic”. Present pain intensity and worst pain intensity in the past 6 months were reported using a 0-10 numeric rating scale (NRS). Furthermore, depression and somatization scores were evaluated in the part of RDC-TMD questionnaires. Effects of duration of illness were analyzed using a Wilcoxon rank sum test for each disease and variable. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate factors of disease associated with sex, age, duration of illness, present pain, worst pain, depression, and somatization. The level of statistical significance was set at P<0.05. Results: In the BMS group, present pain intensity, worst pain intensity, depression score, and somatization score were significantly higher for chronic condition than for acute condition (P=0.001), however, no significant difference was seen between acute and chronic conditions in the TN group (P=0.324, 0.181, 0.150, and 0.152, respectively). Furthermore, when comparing BMS and TN, Logistic regression analysis identified significant associations for sex (odds ratio (OR) = 2.703, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.303-5.611, P = 0.008), worst pain intensity (OR = 0.551, 95% CI = 0.460-0.659, P < 0.001), and somatization score (OR = 3.835, 95% CI = 1.324-11.102, P = 0.013). Conclusions: Although TN is considered more severe pain intensity than BMS, psychosocial aspects are higher or similar in BMS. These data postulate that severity is not directly correlated with the psychological aspects, and continuous mild to moderate pain has also psychosocial impacts, and suggest that BMS patients may require pain control targeting the central nervous system or psychosocial characteristics.