COVID-19 pandemic has led to a deterioration of anxiety, sleep quality and pain intensity in burning mouth syndrome patients.

A longitudinal descriptive study was performed to examine the effect of COVID-19 in patients with burning mouth syndrome (BMS).

Overall, 40 patients diagnosed with BMS were included. The study included a standardized clinical interview and an examination of the oral cavity. Assessment of anxiety via Hospital and Anxiety Depression Scale, Pain Catastrophizing Scale, pain via visual analogue scale and quality of sleep via Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index was done following the initial visit. On the other hand, the second visit occurred 1 and a half months after the onset of lockdown due to COVID.

The study comprised 36 females (90%) and 4 males (10%) aged between 39 to 86 years. Statistically noteworthy differences were found concerning anxiety, sleep quality and pain intensity in the two visits, as shown in Table 1:

Patients with burning mouth syndrome had higher pain catastrophizing scores at baseline and had more worsened symptoms during the COVID pandemic as compared to those with lower scores. Also, a link between chronic pain catastrophizing and worsening of the psychological factors and symptoms was found.