Rebamipide to Manage Stomatopyrosis in Oral Submucous Fibrosis

Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) causes progressive debilitating symptoms, such as oral burning sensation (stomatopyrosis) and limited mouth opening. The standard of care (SOC) protocol includes habit cessation, intralesional steroid and hyaluronidase injections, and mouth opening exercises. The objective of the study was to evaluate efficacy of rebamipide in alleviating burning sensation of the oral mucosa in OSF in comparison with SOC intralesional steroid injections.

Twenty OSF patients were divided into two groups [rebamipide (100 mg TID for 21 days) and betamethasone (4 mg/mL biweekly for 4 weeks)] of 10 each by random sampling. Burning sensation was assessed every week for 1 month. Burning sensation scores were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and paired t-test.

Change in burning sensation score was significant (p < 0.05) in the first four visits. However, score between the 4th and 5th visit was not statistically significant (p > 0.05).

Our study has shown that rebamipide can be considered as an effective modality to manage burning sensation in patients suffering from OSF.

Considering stomatopyrosis and trismus as a major cause for inability to eat in OSF, use of newer adjunctive modalities, such as rebamipide will ease patients suffering and also encourage them to consume food.