Contact allergy in the burning mouth syndrome: a retrospective study on 38 patients.

Sir, The burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is a rather frequent chronic disorder mainly affecting post-menopausal women. It is defined as a burning pain of the oral cavity in the absence of mucosal lesions (1). Based on the daily variation of the pain, three clinical subtypes can be identified. Type 1 BMS is characterized by pain-free awakening with symptoms developing during the day. In type 2, pain is constant throughout the day. In type 3 symptoms are intermittent (2). The pathogenesis is obscure: many cases are idiopathic, but systemic and local factors can be implied, often in a multifactorial way. They include contact hypersensitivity to oral allergens, which is said to be mainly associated with intermittent burning. To investigate the rate of clinically relevant positive patch test reactions in patients with BMS, we retrospectively analysed 38 patch-tested patients with BMS.