Occlusal tactile acuity in patients with burning mouth syndrome: A case-control study

Objectives

Occlusal Tactile Acuity (OTA) is the ability to detect small thicknesses between occluding teeth. Individuals diagnosed with Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS) often refer an uncomfortable sensation associated with their occlusion. The aim of the current study was to measure the OTA in BMS patients, and to compare it with that of age and gender matched pain free controls.

Materials and methods

25 BMS patients and 25 controls were enrolled. The OTA was tested with 10 different thicknesses: 9 aluminium foils (8 –72 µm with a constant increment of 8 µm) and 1 sham test (without foil), each thickness being tested 10 times in random order (100 tests in total).

Results

Significantly increased OTA was observed in the BMS group, compared to the controls group, for the foil thicknesses between 8 µm and 48 µm. Furthermore, BMS patients showed substantial impairment in the detection of the sham test, even if this finding did not reach statistically significance (P = 0.743).

Conclusions

BMS patients presented increased ability to detect small thicknesses between antagonist teeth during intercuspation. These findings might explain the high somatosensory distortion referred by those patients, in absence of objective clinical findings.