Current international consensus on burning mouth syndrome : systematic review of recent review articles

Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is a type of chronic orofacial pain, which is difficult to diagnose and treat. Patients suffer from BMS worldwide. The pathophysiology of this disorder is not fully understood. This study looked at recent review articles about the classifications, diagnosis and pathophysiology of BMS. PubMed/MEDLINE and WEB of SCIENCE® databases were reviewed to identify articles about BMS, written in English from 2010 to May 2017. Eighteen review articles about BMS were identified, including six systematic reviews, 11 narrative reviews, and one meta-analysis. The most frequently cited classification system for BMS was the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD). Fourteen of the 18 articles (78%) subtyped BMS as primary and secondary BMS, and 16 (89%) of the 18 articles revealed that the main pathophysiology of BMS was pain of neuropathic origin. A review and meta-analysis clearly demonstrated significant relationships between psychological factors and BMS. BMS is most frequently subtyped as primary and secondary. Pain in BMS is regarded as of neuropathic origin, although its etiology may be multifactorial. This paper will discuss these findings and a summary of the reviews will be presented