Psychophysical evidence of taste dysfunction in burning mouth syndrome

Miriam Grushka, Barry J. Sessle and Thomas P. Howley

Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto 124 Edward Street, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1G6, Canada

Because subjects with burning mouth syndrome (BMS) frequently report impaired taste, the present study was carried out on 47 BMS subjects and 27 age–and sex-matched control subjects to determine if there was any psychophysical evidence of taste dysfunction in BMS. Taste detection thresholds and taste intensity scaling for the modalities of sweet, salt, bitter and sour were obtained. Compared with control subjects, BMS subjects as a whole displayed statistically significant alterations in sensory dysfunction both at threshold (for sweet) and at suprathreshold levels (for sweet and sour). The BMS subjects were subsequently divided into those subjects who reported a dysgeusic tase (–75 and 60% of the BMS subjects tested at threshold and suprathreshold levels, respectively) and those without a dysgeusic taste ({small tilde}24 and 40% of the subjects tested at threshold and suprathreshold levels, respectively). When the data of these two groups were compared with those of the control subjects, it became evident that at suprathreshold levels, differences in taste function originated mainly from those BMS subjects with complaints of a dysgeusic taste. These findings therefore indicate that psychophysical evidence of taste dysfunction can be demonstrated in BMS and that the changes in taste perception are particularly evident in those BMS subjects with a self-reported symptom of dysgeusia.