Thermography as a Non-Ionizing Quantitative Tool for Diagnosing Burning Mouth Syndrome: Case-Control Study

Elena Nicolas-Rodriguez, Ana Garcia-Martinez, Diana Molino-Pagan, Luis Marin-Martinez, Eduardo Pons-Fuster and Pia López-Jornet
Additional contact information
Elena Nicolas-Rodriguez: Faculty of Medicine and Odontology, Hospital Morales Meseguer, Clínica Odontológica, Marqués de los Vélez s/n, 30008 Murcia, Spain
Ana Garcia-Martinez: Faculty of Medicine and Odontology, Hospital Morales Meseguer, Clínica Odontológica, Marqués de los Vélez s/n, 30008 Murcia, Spain
Diana Molino-Pagan: Collaborate Faculty of Medicine and Odontology, Hospital Morales Meseguer, Clínica Odontológica, Marqués del los Vélez s/n, 30008 Murcia, Spain
Luis Marin-Martinez: Servicio de Endocrinología y Nutrición, Hospital General Universitario Santa Lucía, Urb. Novo Carthago, 80, 30202 Cartagena, Spain
Eduardo Pons-Fuster: Departamento de Anatomía Humana y Psicobiología, Faculty of Medicine and Odontology, Biomedical Research Institute (IMIB-Arrixaca), University of Murcia Spain, 30100 Murcia, Spain
Pia López-Jornet: Faculty of Medicine and Odontology, Biomedical Research Institute (IMIB-Arrixaca), Hospital Morales Meseguer, Clínica Odontológica, Marqués del los Vélez s/n, 30008 Murcia, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-8

Abstract: Objectives: Thermography is an imaging technique based on the acquisition and analysis of thermal data. The present study evaluates the use of tongue infrared thermography (IRT) as a tool for the diagnosis of burning mouth syndrome (BMS). Material and methods: An IRT study was carried out in patients diagnosed with BMS according to the criteria of the International Association for the Study of Pain ( n = 32) and in healthy controls ( n = 35). Burning sensations, dry mouth and taste disturbances were assessed, and three temperature values were recorded for each tongue surface (dorsal, right lateral, left lateral and tip), along with body temperature and environmental temperature. Results: A statistically significant difference was recorded in the temperature of the dorsal surface of the tongue between the BMS group and the controls ( p = 0.01). The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.731 (95% CI: 0.402–0.657; p = 0.003). The sensitivity and specificity obtained was 62% and 77%, respectively. Conclusions: Infrared thermography appears to be useful as a complementary tool for the diagnosis of BMS, though further studies are needed in this field.

Keywords: burning mouth syndrome; infrared thermography; tongue temperature (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/8903/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/8903/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:15:p:8903-:d:868929

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().