Are gums considered 'peripheral'?
 

Yesterday I particularly had a lot of burning in my face but also noticed what felt like my gums had the 'burning' feel. It was a bit hard to tell whether it was the gums or the upper lip on the inside resting against the gums which was burning. Weird eh!

Are gums considered peripheral?

Burning mouth, including the gums are common in PN. Peripheral does not refer to the location only to the fact that the neural tissue involved is not the spinal cord, or brain. Peripheral nerves innervate your stomach, intestines, heart, etc. Peripheral nerves are everywhere in your body, but the spinal cord and brain. I can best compare them to the capillaries of the vascular system. I experience burning in my mouth off and on and have for a decade.

It is also not uncommon for those with PN to have their lacrimal glands and salivary glands denervate, resulting in neurologically induced dry eyes and dry mouth, this is not to be confused with the autoimmune disease of Sjogren's Syndrome. Biopsies of the salivary glands in the lip of Sjogren's Syndrome patients will show inflammatory infiltrates, which will not appear in the neurological sicca syndrome.

Oh, and the tongue can also burn, and it can occassionally be quite bad. If you ask your dentist, he/she will probably tell you, that you are fine....actually, my tongue burning badly was really one of my first real clues that this was small fiber neuropathy. It took 5 more years to diagnosis.

causes:
 

Here is a link listing the many causes of burning mouth:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bur...462/DSECTION=3

Low Vit C intake also can cause sore gums. CoQ-10 supplements also help
gum issues.

One very overlooked cause is the new additive to toothpastes..Triclosan.
Check your toothpaste labels, and if you are using this, try another type for while and see if it is better. It is also recommended that you change your
toothbrush frequently.

Here are some articles on burning mouth. There can be a lot of reasons for it, however, like burning feet, if you have neuropathy, it is not an unexpected nor startling find. My first inclination should have been to ask you if you ever had thrush, but, I assumed you thought of that. Sorry.

You can explore the many reasons listed in the articles, especially the first one below, as it could be a clue as to where your neuropathy is coming from. I likely have a hereditary case, however, prior to arriving at that conclusion (which will be tested for eventually), I did look at the many reasons for burning mouth, and Sjogren's was seriously considered and I did have the lip biopsy which was abnormal but no inflammatory infiltrates.(That biopsy is very painful, beware! And it was not due to burning mouth but the other symptoms of SjS) I have had no inflammation show up in any biopsies nerve, muscle, fat, nor anything inflammatory in blood. I had one oddball ANA, once. I have one other test coming up, and that could potentially uncover some autoimmune process, however, I am not holding my breath on it.

Interestingly, my case came on AFTER minor dental work, and my tongue hurt so badly I called the dentist to ask him if a nerve could be injured. "Of course not', was the reply, LOL. He acted like he never heard of a burning mouth or tongue.

Anyway, it seemed after that, the tongue thing resolved, however, ever since, I have had burning mouth off and on, and to be honest, it has become like a sneeze...'Oh here it is again'. Actually, I have it quite a bit, it is like background noise. Much like many of the crazy things that happen with PN. I may have had burning mouth prior, but, it wasn't until it felt like someone pierced my tongue that it got my attention. (Why do kids do that to their tongues?? Is life not hard enough? At least the belly button you can see, and put in a pretty jewel, not unlike the earlobes....and yes, I have been informed as to why people pierce their tongues....won't get into that discourse here.)

I am scheduled for an EGD and manometry for esophageal issues, which I described in a post regarding gurgling, which, apparently other people don't seem to get with their PN.

The mouth is full of sensory nerves. I also get facial numbness, a tugging sensation, severe pain in the pinna of my ear, hair standing on end, tingling lips. Also can not drink anything cold and mushy. There seems to be a bit of a trigeminally type pain with some of these issues...also, apparently the vagus nerve has some terminus in the outer ear area. No one has a good answer for me, other than PN, and it isn't for me, my most pressing issue. I have to prioritize my issues, and this one for me is at the bottom of the list, given my other concerns. I look at is, as simply, ''it is".

I don't have a lot of mercury containing fillings left in my mouth, having had them slowly replaced by crowns. I don't know how you feel about those. I am not a fan of silver fillings. My recent dentists no longer use them. One told me he stopped using them 20 years ago. Interestingly, if you have dental insurance in this country, it often will not cover the non-meurcury fillings...you have to pay not to get the nontoxic stuff.

I don't think these fillings caused my body wide PN, as I was 'born' with RLS, and what I call 'toe cramps' and family members also have these gifts. But I wouldn't put any mercury in your mouth. My college student son who was sent to war, was sent to see a military dentist, who read some one else's x-ray and did 2 root canals on his perfect and beautiful teeth...and stuck in mercury fillings too. The kid had perfect, beautiful, white, aligned teeth! Nothing wrong with them. 'OOPs' is what they say. Some poor soldier who needs two root canals is out there, and probably nastier than ever. No, you don't sue the army.

If your burning mouth like mine, is simply PN, and you want some relief...I do not usually recommend products on here, but the Biotene line of products, if available in your country, is very, very good. I notice much less burning and annoyance with my mouth when I use these. They do cost quite a bit however.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bur...462/DSECTION=3

http://clinicalevidence.bmj.com/cewe...background.jsp

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17967714

Burning/Numb Mouth
 

Not having a medical background - I can tell you that I have a very healthy component of autonomic neruopathy which has pretty severely affected my ability to digest anything (gastroparesis, or essentially stomach paralysis due to nerve damage)... if I'm having a bad PN day - then my mouth and lips, and even tongue go numb (and the gastroparesis symtoms throughout my whole gut get worse - I think its just the disease rearing its ugly head in a broader way)..... (lips rather like a feeling of being at the dentist and getting a novacaine shot).... looking at the articles that Cyclops posted - this would tend to make sense - the "nerve" damage.....

Mine comes and goes as I said, as our PN tends to "web"... However, years ago I had a wisdom tooth out they told me before the surgery was going to damage the facial nerve and my face and lips (exactly half) would be numb but probably eventually come back.. took year to get it back, but it did come back... point? The feeling is much the same - and both are nerve damage....:(

Just popping my head in this thread. I too am a BMS sufferer. Ruled out a lot of things. Yeast tested in my mouth by GP. Extensive blood work done late Feb. 08 while I had already had the condition for several months, all indications that the inside of my mouth looks fine.

I know drinking orange juice triggers my canker sores I have had since childhood. So I don't touch that anymore. Without fail, I get cankers drinking it. I've also had geographic tongue and fissured tongue since childhood.

I recently started again my Vitamin C supplements (I wish I could remember if I was taking them when my BMS started). I noticed taking the C supplements, my 'dormant' geographic tongue and fissures came back in force after a week and a half. So I stopped the C thinking, maybe I'm on to something here? Wouldn't you know it, the fissures that were painful began to heal. Almost immediately. As did the patchy geographic tongue!

Now I'm waiting to see if my burning mouth calms down. As a trial, I am going to go 2 weeks "C free" in hopes that I find out that the burning subsides a bit (Neurontin/Amitriptyline were working for a bit, so I thought, but since have seemed to not been helping the burning).

Cross your fingers for me. When I did the Candida diet, focusing on eliminating sugars/carbs and yeast, the burning mouth was virtually gone (pre dx for MS, pre drugs). Maybe it's because I felt I was getting somewhere? Probiotics I was taking? Diet? Not sure. I wasn't taking in much C at the time as I remember, and my tongue looked 1 color, PINK! :)

This is all so very confusing to figure out. I'm sure you folks who also experience the BMS issue will agree.

Geographic tongue.
 

Hi dmplaura!

I also have a geographic tongue and fissure down the middle. Yesterday morning I had two very distinct circles on the front of my tongue and I took some pics. The circles move around as the day goes by - it's so weird. Even though a geographic tongue is called 'benign' the circles can be quite sensitive. Do you find that? However these are a total different issue to the burning gums and tongue (which I must say I haven't had much of lately in the mouth).

I must take more careful note of whether vitamin C aggravates the tongue -I know oranges do.

My 'circles' do move around yes. I actually avoid orange juice completely. Someone suggested trying low acid foods. Acidity may be more of a problem. Not sure. I still am going to bring this concern to my doctor's attention, and see if perhaps vitamin C should be tested for allergy of any type.

Some have mentioned that if I did indeed have a C allergy, I would be having more problems.