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Efficacy of rikkosan for primary burning mouth syndrome: a retrospective study
Hiroyuki Hato1, Ken-Ichiro Sakata2, Jun Sato1
1Department of Oral Diagnosis and Medicine, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Hokkaido University, Kita-13 Nishi-7, Kita-ku, 060-8586, Sapporo, Japan.
Background:
Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is a chronic condition characterized by pain in the oral cavity. Kampo medicine is a traditional Japanese medical system that has its roots partly in ancient Chinese medicine. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of rikkosan-a traditional Japanese herbal medicine (Kampo)-in the treatment of primary BMS.
Main Body:
A single-center retrospective study was conducted in 32 patients who were diagnosed with primary BMS and treated with rikkosan alone through gargling (2.5 g rikkosan dissolved in 50 mL hot water) three times daily. Patients were asked to evaluate their pain using a numerical rating scale (NRS) at first visit and after 1 month. One patient had stomatitis as a side effect after gargling with rikkosan, however, no side effects were observed in other patients. Overall NRS scores decreased significantly between the first visit (7.6 ± 2.7) and the 1-month visit (5.6 ± 2.8).
Conclusions:
Rikkosan may be an effective treatment for primary BMS.
