Multidisciplinary comprehensive treatment for BMS can effectively alleviate its pain symptoms, relieve anxiety, depression and improve sleep conditions.
BMS patients were predominantly female and middle-aged, with a median disease duration of about one year.
Multidisciplinary comprehensive treatment achieved a total oral symptom effective rate of 75.0% at 2-year follow-up.
Pain scores as measured by VAS were significantly reduced after multidisciplinary comprehensive treatment at 2-year follow-up.
Anxiety scores as measured by SAS were significantly reduced after multidisciplinary comprehensive treatment at 2-year follow-up.
Depression scores as measured by SDS were significantly reduced after multidisciplinary comprehensive treatment at 2-year follow-up.
Sleep quality scores as measured by PSQI were significantly reduced after multidisciplinary comprehensive treatment at 2-year follow-up.
The multidisciplinary comprehensive treatment protocol combined nutritional supplementation with psychological interventions.
Spearman rank correlation analysis was applied to examine correlations among changes in scale scores across the four outcome measures.
This research suggests that a combination approach to treating burning mouth syndrome (BMS) — a condition causing chronic burning or pain in the mouth without an obvious physical cause — can meaningfully improve patients' pain, mental health, and sleep over a two-year period. The treatment involved taking nutritional supplements (oryzanol, vitamin B2, and vitamin E) alongside psychological counseling and cognitive behavioral therapy for one to two months. In a group of 40 patients, mostly middle-aged women, 75% showed improvement in oral symptoms at the two-year follow-up, with 30% achieving complete resolution. Scores measuring pain, anxiety, depression, and sleep quality all dropped significantly after treatment. This research suggests that BMS should not be treated as a purely physical problem. Because the study included psychological support alongside supplements, and because anxiety, depression, and sleep quality all improved alongside pain, the findings point to the value of addressing the mental health aspects of BMS together with its physical symptoms. The multidisciplinary approach — involving more than one type of care — appeared more comprehensive than single-treatment strategies that have been studied before. It is important to note that this was a small study of 40 patients with no comparison (control) group, meaning all patients received the same treatment and were compared only to their own pre-treatment scores. This design cannot rule out the possibility that patients would have improved on their own over time. Larger randomized controlled trials would be needed to confirm these findings and determine how much each component of the treatment contributed to the improvements seen.
Lin X, Qin Y, Zeng Q, Yong X, Ya Z, Wang J, et al.. (2026). [A 2-year follow-up clinical study on the multidisciplinary comprehensive treatment of burning mouth syndrome].. Zhonghua kou qiang yi xue za zhi = Zhonghua kouqiang yixue zazhi = Chinese journal of stomatology. https://doi.org/10.3760/cma.j.cn112144-20251201-00484