Das Mundbrennen ist eine recht hufige Schmerzform. Epidemiologische Studien gehen von einer Prvalenz um 15% bei Frauen nach der Menopause aus. Flle von Mundbrennen mit klinisch unaufflliger Schleimhaut, fr welche auch im deutschen Sprachraum der Begriff Burning-mouth-Syndrom (BMS) verwendet wird, sind von denjenigen mit assoziierten Schleimhautvernderungen klar abzugrenzen. Mgliche urschliche Faktoren wurden ausfhrlich untersucht und besprochen. Es wird eine multifaktorielle tiologie des Mundbrennens angenommen, welche lokale, systemische und psychologische Faktoren umfasst. Allerdings bestehen widersprchliche Angaben zur Bedeutung einzelner Faktoren. Dieser Mangel an Evidenz spiegelt sich in der Folge in gegenstzlichen Empfehlungen zu Diagnose und Therapie wider. Deshalb wird versucht, die Resultate der wenigen bisher durchgefhrten randomisierten placebokontrollierten Studien zu Behandlungserfolgen in einer bersicht darzustellen.
Background. The complaint of burning mouth is fairly common. Epidemiological studies suggest a prevalence of around 15% in postmenopausal women and between 0,7 and 7,9% for the general population. Purpose: The purpose of this article is to present a review of the literature on epidemiology, clinical symptoms, etiology, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of burning mouth and burning mouth syndrome. Results and conclusions. Potential causal factors have been extensively studied and reviewed, suggesting a multifactorial aetiology, that apparently includes local, systemic and psychogenic factors. However, reports of their relative importance are conflicting. Consequently this lack of evidence is reflected in inconsistent guidelines for diagnosis and treatment. Most of the authors ephasize the importance of history taking and clinical intraoral examination for diagnosis. The symptom of burning mouth associated with clinical mucosal abnormality has to be differentiated from burning mouth syndrome (BMS), a condition in which no mucosal abnormality is evident on examination. Whereas the symptom of burning mouth associated with clinical mucosal signs is described to be often managable by eliminating possible causal factors, the background of most of the proposed treatments for BMS is empiric or even purely anecdotal. Only a few randomised controlled studies have been performed on treatment outcome. Their differing results are presented in a short overview.