Burning mouth: an analysis of 57 patients.

The burning mouth complaint of each of fifty-seven patients was thoroughly studied. Psychogenesis was found to be the most frequent cause, followed by geographic tongue and moniliasis. Multiple causative factors, such as psychogenesis and moniliasis and psychogenesis and geographic tongue, were found in some patients. The purely psychogenic group was composed mostly of postmenopausal women. The tongue and palate were the most frequently affected sites. There were some similarities among patients in the geographic tongue and psychogenesis groups. A diagnostic protocol for patients with burning mouth is described.