Burning mouth disorder and Parkinson's disease: A scoping review of the literature

Background: Burning mouth disorder (BMD) is a complex medical condition characterized by a burning sensation in the mouth of fluctuating intensity. BMD is considered a diagnosis of exclusion, as oral burning can occur secondary to local or systemic conditions. Parkinson's disease (PD) is one such condition. Objective: To provide a scoping review of the literature by assessing all articles written in English that investigated the relationship between BMD and PD. Materials and Methods: Various databases (PubMed, Ovid, Web of Science, Science Direct and Scopus) and a search platform (EBSCOhost) were searched following similar investigative approaches. Duplicates were removed and reference lists of original studies were scrutinized for additional articles. Any decision about the inclusion/exclusion in the review was by consensus among the co-authors. Results: Twenty-five original articles and one supplemental article were included in the final review, of which 13 met the inclusion criteria. These were further divided into five categories based on the study design/article, which included Prevalence studies (n = 6), Letter to the editor (n = 1), Incidence study (n = 1), Case reports (n = 2) and Experimental studies (n = 3). Strongest data was provided by epidemiological studies, which suggest BMD and PD are poorly associated. Conclusions: A scoping review of the existing literature does not suggest that PD patients are any more at risk of developing BMD compared to the general population. While there may be a link through the dopaminergic system as determined by imaging studies, it is unlikely that the pathogenesis of PD disease shares significant commonality with BMD.