Objective: 1. To estimate the prevalence of BMS in PD patients, compared with healthy controls.

2. To identify potential factors associated with the presence or severity of BMS

Background: Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is a distressing condition causing painful burning sensation in the oral cavity without clear abnormality.  BMS may be idiopathic or secondary, occurring in various diseases such as nutritional disorders, endocrine and autoimmune diseases, and neurological conditions. In population studies, the incidence of BMS ranges 0.7% to 14.8%.  One study reported 24% prevalence in Parkinson disease (PD) patients in Northern Ireland, the study was limited in its sample size and selected population.  Clinical overlap between BMS and restless leg syndrome (RLS) was observed in a case series of 5 patients.  Dopaminergic medications such as levodopa and dopamine agonists have been noted to have variable benefit in BMS.  Although pathophysiology of BMS is unclear, dopaminergic dysregulation seems to play a role.   There is little literature further evaluating BMS in PD population.

Methods: This is a case control study. Consecutive patients with PD evaluated by movement disorder neurologists at Cleveland Clinic, and their age and gender matched healthy volunteers without PD (eg. spouse of the PD subjects) were recruited. Each subject was asked to complete a survey at their office visit that contained questions regarding demographics, symptoms of burning sensation of the mouth/tongue/lip, presence of dry mouth, change in taste, dental and smoking history, symptoms of RLS.  Medical chart review regarding information including medication uses, PHQ-9 score, GAD-7 score, UPDRS I and II were recorded. 

Results: So far, 77 patients with PD and 22 healthy controls completed the survey. In PD group, 15 out of 77 PD patients reported abnormal sensation in the mouth.  Of those, 8 described the abnormal sensation as burning.    In the healthy control group, 2 of 22 healthy controls reported abnormal sensation in the mouth, none described burning.   Study will continue to recruit up to 100 subjects in each group by 2/1/2017, after which data will be available for complete analysis.

Conclusions: Available upon completion of the study. 

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/prevalence-of-burning-mouth-syndrome-in-parkinson-disease/