Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS): Anyone found any relief?

I was just diagnosed today after 2 weeks of constant burning sensations in my throat and tongue, inflamed pappilae and swollen lips. I tried every single thing out there for it. A few days ago I was so worked up over it, I took a Xanax. It relieved the pain for about 4 hours longer than the viscous lidocaine. I've read clonazepam is a go to treatment as well. I've included photos and the last one is after I took the xanax

Hello jun0,

I have dealt with burning tongue for 12 years. I've not found anything that will relieve pain for long periods of time, so I rely heavily on ClonazePam. I've tried to go without it because I'm afraid of building a tolerance to it, but I have not been successful. Some temporary reliefs for me are chewing minty gum and sucking ice chips. Also, it helps when I get busy and get my mind off it. I've read that for most people it should simply fade away eventually. Unfortunately, I've not had that happen yet.

I think everyone suffering from BMS experiences it in different ways. I wish so desperately a cause and a cure would be found. I do know that the majority of people experiencing BMS are women who are post-menopausal. I've also read that a traumatic time in one's life can be the onset. This could be true to me because when I experienced my first symptoms, I was dealing with my mother's stroke and having to make life support issues for her.

I love that I have found this group to talk about BMS because explaining how irritating and frustrating it is is hard for someone who's not experienced it. In my small Wyoming town, some of my doctors haven't even heard of it!

Is GABA basically the OTC version f Gabapentin?

Decreasing amounts of prednisone for a couple of months. An immunologist and I figured a plan.
We started at 60 mg of prednisone daily for about two weeks. Then we went down to 40mg. same time period. Then 20mg. Then weekly——10mg; then five; then five every other day; then 2.5 every other day for a week. Then she checked my Cortizone levels. I don’t really know or understand why exactly but she did. I ended up having it three times over maybe a three year span. Like you’re having it.
It works. You have to be careful about blood pressure and things like that if you tend to have high blood pressure. Which I do by the way… I was OK and I was in my 60s then. Now I am 78 years old.
Some people get a balloon or a volleyball head if they take it a while and it takes a while to get rid of it. But that’s just cosmetic and this is the only thing that gets rid of it for me. I don’t think doctors understand the 24 seven severity of having burning mouth syndrome. It’s just awful and it’s never going away you think. Try some prednisone. You may gain some weight. You may have some side effects from that but nothing like burning mouth syndrome. It is the worst and the funny thing is they say lower your stress, the major stress from all of that is from the burning mouth . Good luck to you and really truly looking into the prednisone fix.

I've mentioned this before, but want to refer back to it so that others may try what worked for me. Since the cause of BMS has not been determined, I can't say it will work for everyone.

I saw that a medical research study had been done in the U.K. which showed positive outcomes from the use of acupuncture to treat BMS. I printed the study, took it to my acupuncturist, and he followed the procedures outlined. My BMS subsided by 80 percent within three months of regular treatments. There were times when there were no symptoms at all. It returned to a lesser degree about six months later, so I went back and had a few more treatments. It’s been more than a year and I would say that I feel nothing 90 percent of the time and just slightly noticeable the rest. I’m VERY happy I found the research and had the protocol. I can only verify that it worked for me, and it may for you. Best of all, it has no side effects. Here is a link to the study, which I downloaded and took to my acupuncturist.

Over time, he added some more points beyond what was called for in the study. I think two in particular added a lot. I don’t know what they are called in acupuncture vernacular, but they were next to the fingernail on the fourth and fifth finger. Those, unlike the others, did hurt, but I think made a lot of difference.