I Have ‘Burning Mouth Syndrome’ And It’s Even Worse Than It Sounds

"Eating becomes a nightmare."

It’s a crisp October afternoon, the kind of autumnal day I typically love. But I’m sitting in my doctor’s office, after a week of inexplicable, excruciating mouth pain. It feels like I’ve scorched my tongue on a hot drink, but I haven’t. My doctor ultimately diagnoses me with thrush. This feels wrong to me. I’ve seen a lot of thrush, having worked with infants for years. My mouth looks completely normal. Still, I fill the antifungal he prescribes, and take it. The pain is endless. The medication isn’t helping. So I go into research mode. A month passes, and I’m still miserable ― but I’m also armed with a theory, so I return to my doctor. I tell him that I think it’s burning mouth syndrome, or BMS, sometimes referred to as glossodynia. In the U.S., it’s estimated that less than 20,000 cases are diagnosed per year. There are two forms of the condition: primary, in which no underlying cause can be determined, and secondary, in which there’s another condition or medication that causes it.