01 Marzo 2019

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Acupuncture improves pain and rest in Burning Mouth Syndrome patients: a clinical cases

Original article

Cynthia P. Diep, Greg Goddard, Giovanni Mauro

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Objectives  Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS) is an idiopathic condition consisting of an intraoral burning or dysaesthetic sensation, recurring daily for more than 2 hours per day over more than 3 months, without clinically evident causative lesions.

This case series study of eleven BMS patients has been conducted to investigate the safety and efficacy of acupuncture in this chronic orofacial pain disorder.

Materials and methods  Acupuncture sessions of 30 minutes with a standardized technique were administered to eleven BMS patients taking 0.25 mg of clonazepam, still complaining of oral symptoms and poor rest. The acupuncture sessions were planned weekly for five weeks.

Patients were asked to fill a VAS (Visual Analog Scale) form assessing the pain level and a VAS form assessing the quality of rest (poor rest) for the past 5 days before their visit, at week 1 (baseline), week 3 and week 5.

Results  The VAS ratings for pain and poor rest were significantly reduced during the five weeks treatment. Gender didn’t influence significantly the rating of pain or quality of rest. No adverse reactions through all treatments were reported.

Conclusions  The positive outcomes of the present study, with the limits of a case series format, suggests that acupuncture can be an effective and safe adjuvant treatment modality for BMS patients that are taking medication for BMS.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.19256/d.cadmos.03.2019.06