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Biomedical subjects

Miriam Grushka

Publications and source records attributed to Miriam Grushka.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Burning mouth syndrome.

Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) has been considered an enigmatic condition because the intensity of pain rarely corresponds to the clinical signs of the disease. As a result, BMS patients have variously been labelled as depressed, anxious or hypochondriacal and have often been underserviced by the medical and dental communities. Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in this disorder with the discovery that the pain of BMS may be neuropathic in origin and originate both centrally and peripherally. This chapter discusses some of our recent understandings of the etiology and pathogenesis of BMS as well as the role of pharmacotherapeutic management in this disorder.

Burning Mouth Syndrome↗
PubMed2003

Burning mouth syndrome and other oral sensory disorders: a unifying hypothesis.

Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS) is a sensory disorder which results in constant, bilateral burning pain of the tongue, lips, and other oral mucous membranes. Atypical odontalgia (AO) is another sensory disorder, usually defined as a toothache-like pain for which no dental cause can be identified. Previous literature has suggested that AO is often associated with a concomitant temporomandibular disorder (TMD). This hypothesis paper explores the possibility that BMS, AO and TMD can be related through hyperactivity of both the sensory and motor components of the trigeminal nerve following loss of central inhibition as a result of taste damage in the chorda tympani and/or the glossopharyngeal nerves.

Burning Mouth Syndrome↗
PubMed2002

Burning mouth syndrome.

Burning mouth syndrome is characterized by a burning sensation in the tongue or other oral sites, usually in the absence of clinical and laboratory findings. Affected patients often present with multiple oral complaints, including burning, dryness and taste alterations. Burning mouth complaints are reported more often in women, especially after menopause. Typically, patients awaken without pain but note increasing symptoms through the day and into the evening. Conditions that have been reported in association with burning mouth syndrome include chronic anxiety or depression, various nutritional deficiencies, type 2 diabetes (formerly known as non-insulin-dependent diabetes) and changes in salivary function. However, these conditions have not been consistently linked with the syndrome, and their treatment has had little impact on burning mouth symptoms. Recent studies have pointed to dysfunction of several cranial nerves associated with taste sensation as a possible cause of burning mouth syndrome. Given in low dosages, benzodiazepines, tricyclic antidepressants or anticonvulsants may be effective in patients with burning mouth syndrome. Topical capsaicin has been used in some patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Pain and personality profiles in burning mouth syndrome.

The McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) were administered to 72 subjects with burning mouth syndrome (BMS) who were also requested to match the levels of their clinical pain to line lengths on a visual analogue scale (VAS) and to experimentally induced warm and painful thermal stimuli. The responses of 102 toothache pain subjects and 43 asymptomatic age- and sex-matched control subjects were used to compare the responses of the BMS subjects on the MPQ and MMPI, respectively. The results indicated that BMS pain is quantitatively similar to, but qualitatively different from, toothache pain, that self-reports of BMS pain appear to be valid, that when compared to the asymptomatic control subjects, BMS subjects show elevations in certain personality characteristics which are similar to those seen in other chronic pain patients, and that these personality disturbances tend to increase with increased pain. Therefore, our findings indicate that the pain of BMS is more severe than has previously been suggested and that the severity of this pain may explain some of the personality changes which occur in the BMS subjects.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Psychophysical assessment of tactile, pain and thermal sensory functions in burning mouth syndrome.

Tactile, two-point discrimination, thermal change detection and heat pain thresholds as well as oral stereognostic ability, warmth scaling and heat pain tolerance were compared in a group of 72 subjects with burning mouth syndrome (BMS) and 43 age- and sex-matched control subjects. No differences were found between the BMS and control subjects for any of the sensory modalities tested except for heat pain tolerance. Pain tolerance was significantly decreased for the BMS subjects at the tongue tip, a site of clinical pain in approximately 85% of the subjects tested in this study, but not at the cutaneous lower lip which was a site of pain only in approximately 17% of the subjects tested in this study. In addition, no differences in heat pain tolerance were found at the cutaneous lower lip between the control subjects and the BMS subjects who reported pain on the mucosal lower lip (approximately 49% of subjects), but heat pain tolerance was significantly decreased at this site for those BMS subjects tested without pain on the mucosal lower lip (approximately 51% of subjects). These findings do not suggest a psychogenic origin for the alteration of heat pain tolerance in the BMS subjects, but suggest instead specific changes in their peripheral or central sensory functions.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Applicability of the McGill Pain Questionnaire to the differentiation of 'toothache' pain.

The McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) was administered to 102 'toothache' patients to determine whether it was sufficiently sensitive to distinguish between dental patients whose pain was clinically diagnosed as originating from a reversibly inflamed tooth pulp (group I) and those whose pain was diagnosed as originating from an irreversibly inflamed or necrotic pulp (group II). Scores for Total Pain Rank Index (PRI(T)), Sensory Pain Rank Index (PRI(S)), Evaluative Pain Rank Index (PRI(E)), Miscellaneous Pain Rank Index (PRI(M)), and Number of Words Chosen (NWC) were significantly higher (p less than 0.05) for group II patients. The PRI differences between both groups were attributed mainly to the more frequent selection by group II patients of 8 of the 20 subclasses of words and/or of words with higher rank values within the 8 subclasses. A significantly greater degree of sleep disturbance, nausea, headache, drowsiness and/or dizziness was also found in group II patients. Discriminant analysis using the 20 subclasses and 4 supplementary questions related to sleep disturbance, changes in food intake or activity levels, and accompanying symptoms, indicated that the MPQ, when used alone, correctly predicted diagnosis and treatment outcome in 73% of patients. Therefore, our findings indicate that the MPQ can distinguish between the two types of toothache and suggest that, especially when used along with other standard diagnostic tests, it may be a useful clinical adjunct in the diagnosis of dental pain.

Adolescent↗