Just a few weeks ago I learned, finally, of a treatment for my Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS). BMS is a condition where all of my mouth linings (oral mucosal) are inflamed. It feels as though I ate a really hot pizza or drank scalding coffee; and now it has progressed to the point where it is constant except when I am sleeping. For some reason I continually lick my lips and for some reason, it’s very difficult to smile physically, maybe because everything is so swollen. But I can tell you that in my innermost being it is difficult to smile as well.
Alternative Treatment Options for Burning Mouth Syndrome
It has been a difficult mission lately as my search and rescue dog, Hasty, and I try to find a treatment to relieve my BMS. My husband and care partner, Dan, is our navigator, and his job is to plot our course on a map and keep us on task. I have given Hasty a scent article that gives him the scent he is to locate. That scent does not smell like the chewing gum that I have to chew incessantly in order to keep from licking my lips. It is not the myriad of mouthwashes I have tried. It is a metallic or rubbery taste and smell that will not go away.
Prolotherapy For the Vagus Nerve
The scent we are searching for is hope. We think we may have gotten a whiff of hope as we approached “the cave” just last week. I watched as my dog’s tail raised up high, and I saw him take an extraordinarily large snort of something that smelled promising to him. Hope goes by the “name” of Prolotherapy and it involves 6-10 injections of simple dextrose into the cervical spine at the ligament attachments to the bone, with the goal of tightening chronically stretched-out ligaments. It is believed that this treatment also frees up the vagus nerve and restores it to its intended role.
BMS and Cervical Spine Instability
The thought behind this treatment is that many people who suffer from BMS have a history of cervical spine instability. That’s the case for me – I totaled my car in 2003 and had to have my neck fused. The neck injury causes compression on the vagus nerve and other nerves in that location causing problems with cerebral blood flow. This then, it is hypothesized, creates burning in the mouth.
There are many naysayers I am encountering as I enter the cave of Complementary Alternative Medicine and Hope. Most of them tell me that the only thing that works for BMS is anti-depressants.
With my limited ability to speak well, because of an overly stuffed mouth, I command my dog to focus, and I re-scent him on what he is looking for. It is difficult for our team to remain on task. I get tired and want to give up at times, and yet I know that I have to hold on to hope as I get closer and closer to the cave entrance.
Just before entering the cave I get discouraged learning from another naysayer that the prolotherapy may cost upwards of $18,000. Then Dan reminds me that I cannot live with my mouth in so much pain. I’m afraid that he bears the brunt of my pain episodes. He and other members of my support group have been helpful as I try to distinguish between valid treatment options and those of practitioners just trying to make a quick buck.
Hasty, Dan, and I will spend some time entering the cave, and we’ll stop to rest and do some neck exercises, and as always we’ll discuss the options available to us. Maybe that will help some. I hope so.
Patti Burnett 