Taste and Smell Clinic - Washington, D.C. - Treatment Centers and Clinics for BMS in DC

E-mail: Doc@TasteandSmell.com
Address: Taste and Smell Clinic
5125 MacArthur Blvd., Suite 20
Washington, D.C. 20016
Phone Number: 202-364-4180 or 1-877-MY SMELL
FAX Number: 202-364-9727
Location: The Taste and Smell Clinic is located at 5125 MacArthur Blvd., Suite 20, Washington, DC 20016. It is a fully equipped medical facility of 2200 sq. ft. situated in a modern office building in the attractive Palisades neighborhood of Washington DC 2 miles west of Georgetown University Medical Center. Ample on site parking is available. It is served by Metrobus (D6 line) feeding off the Metro subway system.
May 2005
Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS) is a Biochemical Disease
BMS is considered a syndrome with an unknown cause. It is usually considered a psychological disorder occurring mainly in older, post-menopausal women. We now present evidence that these are specific biochemical changes occurring in BMS which relate to its etiology and course of treatment.
We have been studying patients with BMS for over 20 years. During this period we have evaluated various metabolic changes that occur in patients with this syndrome. In doing this we have studied various aspects of zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), and magnesium (Mg) metabolism in these patients.
We have also evaluated various methods of treatment in patients with BMS. Because we have discerned that these patients have low levels of a specific brain neurotransmitter, gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), we have treated them with a technique which increases this brain neurotransmitter. In these studies, we have used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TCMS) to increase concentrations of this neurotransmitter. This treatment elicited a significant decrease in their BMS, in a group who responded to TCMS. However, another group of patients did not improve on this treatment, a group who did not respond to TCMS. We investigated this latter group in detail.
We evaluated various aspects of body metabolites in patients with BMS including both the responsive and the non-responsive groups. What we discovered was that the non-responsive group had significantly lower salivary Mg than did normals or the responsive patients with BMS. Indeed, after TCMS while salivary Mg increased in some responsive patients there was no change in lowered salivary Mg among the non-responsive patients.
These results suggest measurements of salivary Mg in patients with BMS before treatment with TCMS is a useful indicator to identify which patients may or may not respond to this treatment.
Results of this study were presented at the 2005 meeting of Experimental Biology and appeared in print as follows: Çƒ?Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) improvement following transcranial magnetic stimulation (TCMS) may be predicted by pretreatment measurements of saliva magnesium.Çƒ? FASEB J.19: A 1904, 2005.