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Updated: Dec 10, 2025

Taste Exam: A Brief and Validated Test
Published on: August 17, 2018
Taste and Pain Response in Burning Mouth Syndrome With and Without Geographic Tongue
Aims:
To assess the effect of geographic tongue (GT) on taste, salivary flow, and pain characteristics in burning mouth syndrome (BMS) to determine whether GT is a contributing factor to BMS and whether BMS and GT represent similar patient populations.
Methods:
A retrospective chart study was conducted. Patients with a diagnosis of BMS or BMS/GT were included. Data regarding smell testing, spatial taste-testing, salivary flow, oral pH, and subjective pain rating on a generalized labeled magnitude scale (gLMS) were collected.
Results:
No significant differences in age, gender, oral pH, smell, or pain were found between groups. Stimulated and unstimulated salivary flow were significantly lower in BMS/GT. Taste responses to all taste stimuli and to ethanol were significantly lower in BMS, with the exception of sour at the fungiform papillae.
Conclusion:
BMS and BMS/GT present with similar clinical pain phenotype and demographics; however, taste was more intact in BMS/GT, suggesting that GT may be a contributing factor in the development of BMS through a mechanism that does not involve taste.
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