Natural Remedies for Burning Mouth Syndrome

Burning Gums

I suffered with gums that were on fire for over 2 years. I tried everything - and came here a lot for inspiration.

Nothing worked. Then I discovered red light therapy. I was hopeful that could work & it did! I ordered the Handheld Red Light Therapy Device Pro from U----e. This red light has an attachment tip you can put in your mouth. I saw something similar also on Amazon.

The day I received it, I used it for 20-25 minutes on my entire gums. That night, I observed that the pain had turned to a tingling sensation that lasted all night.

When I woke up the next morning, I was pain free! I still use it occasionally on my gums, but for the most part, I have remained pain free. Praise God!

Quinn

Hi Linda, how many Mg of the ALA do you take and how many times a day?

My boyfriend had burning lip syndrome several times in his life. So miserable for him. We tried everything, brushing only with baking soda, peroxide rinse in mouth, and only relief he got was from ice cube. Finally went to doctor. He had a huge overgrowth of Candida. He took anti-fungal medicine and we went on basic no carb diet for two months. We drank lots of water. He detoxed hard. He hated giving up bread, beer, candy, chips, junk food and so after two months he quit. It stopped the burning on his lips. He never went back to toothpaste, just baking soda. We kept toothbrushes in peroxide and replaced them every two weeks. Candida once gets in your blood, systemic, is hard to get rid of. We also took pills, [email protected], has an amazing set. he's on YouTube Eric Bakker.

My daughter has had some mouth issues on and off the last few years since wearing braces. The braces are off now but still she has had intermittent trouble with mouth sores and a burned feeling in her mouth. She has learned that she probably has a cinnamon allergy - at least if she consumes a large amount of cinnamon.

But even still she would say that her mouth was burning, and it felt like her taste buds had been burned off and she couldn't taste anything. I wondered if it was a delayed covid reaction since we had covid a month ago.

Then it dawned on me. Burning mouth syndrome. I have read about it here on Earth Clinic many times. I tried to remember what remedies I had read about, and it hit me. Her toothpaste. She uses one with SLS. I told her my suspicion and told her not to use her toothpaste anymore.

The next day I bought her some Burt's Bees toothpaste. She has been using it ever since and now her mouth is fine! I know it isn't such an easy fix for many people, but it is surely an easy thing to try first!

~Mama to Many~

Karen, never give up! While you're looking for help, do try inhaling h2o2, the plain 3%. You can also dilute it and spread it on the skin in that area.

Karen,

If you haven't already tried it, Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) may be worth a test.

https://www.europeanreview.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/6585-6591.pdf

Art

I was so surprised when I read your article about burning mouth. I've had it for over 30 years, and several years after it started, I had a DVT in the same location you did. Mine was 5 inches long and could have easily killed me. I had two more DVT's since then. The burning mouth was gone while I was on 3 mg of clonazepam, oxycodone and methadone, but I became a zombie after taking this medicine for 10 years. I lost 8 years of my life in an almost coma state. When I was taken off of the meds that worked (mainly the clonazepam) the burning returned. I am ready to give up and die. Unless one has this, he can't understand how miserable it is. The burning is now all over my body. Like you, I pray that someone figures this out to help others.

Karen S.

Hello Sonja, how are you doing - it's been 3 years since your post. My BMS is also post dental work - veneers! I was just wondering are you still ok and what has helped you. Cheers. Natalia

I have recently been diagnosed with BMS by an oral medicine specialist and prescribed clonozepam rinse. It made me feel awful, detached from my body even though I wasn't swallowing it.

Through trial and error and consuming all the usual supplements for this condition (Alfa lipoic acid, zinc, vitamin B's, soda, clove etc - to very little effect) I have found most relief in the last few days from saffron tea (20 strands per glass of hot water, steeped for 10 min) I sip it throughout the morning and hold it in my mouth before swallowing it.

Also at the same time I started taking Goldenseal - dissolve a capsule in half a glass of water and hold in my mouth for about 3 min then swallow it. Don't know what works better.

There is a lot of studies recently about saffron treating depression, BMS and other conditions. I'm not out of the woods yet as my mouth is still not back to normal but this is the first little sign of improvement I've experienced in the last two months. To be continued...

Hi Cathy, what is mms please as I'd like to give it a try. I hope your BMS is improving.

I found that eating tart apples brought on my burning mouth.

No more apples.

I just left a comment on another page and forgot to put burning mouth disease...it is caused by the herpes virus (per Medical Medium/Anthony William there are over 60 of them) H. Viruses cause 100's of diseases All arthritises, MS, burning mouth disease, chronic fatigue, hair loss, dry eyes or can go blind, mental loss, sooooo many diseases, go learn all the anti-virus foods to eat, what not to eat while you are killing the virus and add Ted's remedies to kill that virus so we can feel better! When you have rheumatoid arthritis, he calls it stage 4 of having the herpes virus (he also calls it the Epstein Barr virus I think not to offend some folks...some bug bit us that had one of the herpes viruses and made us soooo sick! ) Go get all the remedies and kill it....if you have had it for decades, MM says you need to drink FRESH celery juice due to it's miracle mineral salts that kill viruses but you must drink it for 2 years...he wants you to drink it forever to keep all viruses and toxins away. Not gonna lie, bitter, so I am following Ted's remedies and eating anti-viral foods like garlic, onions, most fruit, Wildflower REAL honey (real is take a drop of honey put on finger, if it barely moves, it is the real stuff, if it runs off your finger, corn syrup was added, throw it away), wild blueberries, rasberries, figs, dates, etc., go learn them!

I thought burning mouth was from low magnesium. That and TMJ tight muscle in jaw.

1 drop of activated mms in 2 ounces of very warm water gargled twice a day helps with burning, swelling and mouth pain. Not a cure but really helps with the symptoms.

Hi Pat,

Start to chew dry Sage leaves all day long in nonstop regime - avoid stems - of course interrupt when food intake - do it few days or as needed - hope you'll feel a great improvement and, finally, get rid of any complaints.

Wish you the best.

I have had BMS for 3.5 years, and I've talked with my dentist, my GP, and I have seen an allergist. No one has a clue what to tell me. I notice that it is worse some days that others, and just this week, I linked eating banana to increased pain. After eating a banana, my mouth felt like it had slivers of glass in it, prickly and painful. I stopped eating a banana at breakfast and it is better, but of course, not gone. I think that the solution is different for everyone. I am exploring eliminating as much acid from my diet as possible. Amazingly, banana has a pH of 5.6, which puts it in the acidic range. I am examining the water I drink and just bought some with pH of 7.7 and one at 9.4. A friend told me her dentist told her that her bottled water was too acidic and was causing her to have cavities for the first time in her life. I am also taking a Prilosec every day for a while to see if I need to calm my digestive system. I do tend to have acid reflux, so at least I'm getting relief from that. Citrus fruits like lemon and lime cause problems for me, too. I read that watermelon is a good fruit, more alkaline. I'll try that. Just sharing what I'm learning, but I really don't have relief yet, so maybe none of this will work.

Banished Burning mouth. So distracting and distressing.

What I did was try MOM [Milk of Magnesia]; big swig in mouth and hold there as long as can before spitting out. No rinsing. Then one drop therapeutic Frankincense vitality on softest possible dry toothbrush and brushed thoroughly on teeth, above gumline, and tongue gently.

Try not to rinse with water right away.

I did this treatment twice a day for 3 days. Then added a day again if flared up.

Hydrogen peroxide seemed to bring it back on.

I also upped my probiotics.

God Bless.

I have found sparkling water, like Perrier or any supermarket brand with carbonation, very soothing. Also chinese herbal mouth wash.

Here is a link to a woman who has BMS and Sjogren's which was helped by taking low-dose naltrexone (LDN). I hope this can help someone with these ailments.

https://www.ldnscience.org/resources/interviews-patients/cindy-alan-sjogrens-osteoarthritis-arthritis-pain

It seems the most difficult part is finding a doctor who will prescribe it. Good luck.

please join our FB groups on Burning Mouth Syndrome and Primary Burning Mouth Syndrome....this has been a very informative thread...mine is from dental work so I don't believe all these things would be applicable to me...I have read that ALA will not help if it comes from after dental work. I was looking for something and came across this thread. Good luck to all. Now folks are doing cold laser therapy.

Have had bms for over a year and a half now and it wasn't until a couple months ago I knew the symptoms even had a name. Raw tongue throughout the day. Anything salty tasted like it was solid salt. Any oil in cooking made meals taste like they were covered in motor oil.

Started mega doses of subliminal B12 and alpha lipoic acid. Probably over 2400mgs a day. Got maybe 50% better. Then read where there are 2 versions of ala. An E type and S type. Most supplements have both forms but your body can only assimilate the R version. Have been on that version for almost a week now. 2400mg a day. Also super b complex.

I traced my beginning issues back to when I was put on gabapentin for anxiety. Have been on 1600mg a day for almost a year. Have backed that off to night time only at 400mg and will watch for withdrawal symptoms and discuss with my doctor in two weeks. Some sites say GABA helps bms other sites say it makes the symptoms worse.

I'm at my wits end with this hanging over my head from morning till night.

Are you thinking that bananas make burning mouth symptoms worse? I love bananas but have been thinking I should eliminate them from my diet for a while too. I'm running out of fruits to eat; I've already eliminated mangos, oranges, melons, berries and others. I'm definitely going to try the cold coconut oil pieces to see if that can relieve the burning. I do have acid reflux and take omeprazole daily. I also take Levothyroxine for a thyroid condition. I'm a 65 year old female. It helps to read that I'm not alone and my symptoms are not "in my mind" and are real.

Jules, you may be onto something! I do know that L-lysine is a "cure" for herpes. Shingles is herpes zoster, another of the nine types herpes types. I got type 2 which will appear once every couple years. My wife has type 1 which shows up very rarely these days. Anyway, for both of us, L-lysine, a couple grams a day will quickly make the outbreaks vanish. Thus, I will try the L-lysine for my BMS. I try to avoid all prescription/OTC drugs; L-lysine is a natural amino acid. For every health problem, there are natural remedies. The precaution for the L-lysine is to make sure it wasn't derived from genetically modified corn. By the way, a huge portion of the population has at least one type of herpes aboard. Symptoms will appear under times of duress, whatever the cause of the upset is.

Can you explain the baking soda remedy, please?

Michel's comment was the closest thing I had to a resolution. Because of his comment, I'll make sure to keep commenting back with updates because I know how overwhelming this can be.

I read something on the Mayo Clinic that many times it's not just one issue that causes burning mouth syndrome- but a few different reasons. So far, this has made sense for me. I was trying to eat more healthy so I cut out a lot of foods out of my diet. My main was that I was only drinking water. I think this led to a vitamin deficiency. After reading this thread I started with Michel's doses. Helped a ton but didn't totally get rid of it. My tongue felt raw and almost swollen now.

I just went through a process of elimination. What had changed around the time I started with the symptoms? For me, with my hopes of a healthier lifestyle, I had switched to a metal water bottle that I was continuously drinking out of through out the day. I read about an oral allergy to nickel. I stopped using the bottle 24 hours ago and have noticed a drastic change. Obviously everyone is different, but there has to be someone that may have the same issue. Reading forums I felt so defeated. Mostly I have realized that it's a process, but by process of elimination, you can most likely find the source of your pain.

I am suffering from Burning mouth disease for over 15 years. At last I got spasms.. I took valerian, and that stopt the spasms. About 20 mg each 4 hours. Not the pain, helas.

I had burning mouth syndrome that was increasingly getting worse. I had it for four months and read about taking Alpha Lipoic Acid. I couldn't believe it. Within the first week the burning in my mouth started to decrease along with the reflux. I am now 1 month out from starting to take it and I have very very minimal symptoms only on my tongue. I continue to take it and for me it worked.

Redmond Real Salt specifically is one of the main culprits that started & exacerbates my BMS. Trigger point injections with lidocaine & steroid around base of my skull & neck helped briefly. I'm going salt free to test my theory on salt but after elimination of everything else I'm pretty certain salt sensitivity, perhaps related to Addisons disease combined with SIBO, plays a dominant role here. Hydrogen breath testing is scheduled this morning, so testing progresses. Try eliminating added table salt for a day or two & see if it helps. Klonopin has been mentioned in several feeds I've read & I'm following up for a Rx for this soon as well. None of the Rx toothpastes or mouth rinses used for braces have helped except prolonged frequent use of Oragel rinse.

I'm wondering how the valtrex worked with your mouth situation. I'm on third month and it's really getting tiresome. Have tried this and that to no avail. Our situation seems similar other than exp nose spray.

I'm in 3rd stage renal failure and have CFIDS too, so will both those hurt my kidneys any further? Thank you!

I'm so grateful to find this site. I have had Bms for 4 years. I've been on all sorts of fibromyalgia drugs and changed diets and meditated. Nothing works. My dentists passes me off but my doctor has tried many things. I went out today and bought some B 12. I'm hoping this works. Good luck to all of you.

I have the exact same thing happening due to stress that started when preparing for a big move, with three kids and a dog. I had dental work done and my mouth has not been right for 4 months now. I notice my tongue is out of control, and I have to consciously make it stop, but it's very hard. Even now, I can barely make my tongue stop rubbing on my teeth. Sometimes I hold water in my mouth for a little bit and that temporarily helps. Thanks for your post. There are so many remedies to try. I pray that I find a solution that works for me. Good luck everyone!

Same for me. Found to be extremely anemic. Iron pills did the job.

Thanks this post - very useful. I really feel moving my tongue around all the time really aggravates the BMS. Spent most of the morning asleep as I am so tired from it and now it feels better than it normally does by mid afternoon. Also cleaning my teeth (with earthpaste) after eating so I don't fiddle with the food in my teeth. Relaxing to the bottom of the mouth really seems to help.

After suffering for almost 2 years, going to multiple doctors and even a homeopathic practitioner, I made a list of possible remedies that I found in different forums online, and started to work my way down the list. Thank goodness, Alpha lipoic acid (ALA) was at the top. 200mg 3 x per day for 4-6 weeks, then dropped the dose to 200mg per day. - always on an empty stomach. It works pretty well - not 100%, but pretty well - and it's cheap. I started the ALA in April of 2013. It is now August of 2017. I am 53 yrs old. This all started when I was 47. I have very well controlled diabetes - no meds and am entering menopause - those were two of the factors that seem to be most represented in the studies I found. I am hoping that once I get through menopause this will just go away. By the way, I do have flair ups on the ALA that last for a few days but they are manageable.

I am trying out some GABA this week and very sleepy /groggy, so I was googling around and found this article saying some Burning mouth sufferers are low in GABA ....hope this article below helps someone

http://www.tasteandsmell.com/dec04.htm

Hi Maureen, My BMS started in 2000, right after a dentist visit for cleaning and regular check up nothing extra ordinary. I told my dentist but He denied of any thing happening with the cleaning teeth or medication he gave me to take for pain after the cleaning, has to do any thing with BMS. And I was disappointed but has suffered with insomnia, anxiety and depression at the time but then I researched and found the same things to do that you mentioned. I stopped taking any sugar even fruits for few months, took a lot of green veges and changed my toothpaste to a herbal toothpaste and drank bicarbonate soda in water for few weeks. I also quit wheat, white rice and spices for six months and took natural anti biotics, alternating every week, like grapefruit seed extract, oregano oil, lugal's iodine, garlic, borax and Hydrogen peroxide ect. And all the symptoms were gone and I started to enjoy regular food, spices and meats. I was free of symptoms for 5 years and BMS came back again, last year. This episode was worse and aggressive than the last one. I tried to do the same regime, to get rid of it but it is still there. It is 80% gone but keep coming back with the little things like bananas and even berries. I am not in a lot of pain now like I was before but still in stress. I am trying to relax the tongue now and hoping to have a miracle.

I am so happy to find your post that is quite similar to mine when I posted it first from Miami, Florida ( I was visiting my daughter at that time, she is in Chicago now)

I am hopeful again with the green smoothies and Ayurvedic herbs Triphala for gut problems, milk thistle and vitamins that I need for Graves' disease.

I hope we all get cure soon. Amen!

Hello my Dear friends, all who suffer from BMS, I had been suffering with BMS on and off, for more than a year now. ALA was not helping much to but some other things are so I do have few days of BMS free and the burning is Subsidised, but some weird sensation is still there in the mouth even salt bothers. I am taking green smoothies, slippery elm, absorbable calcium, and some trace minerals like celenium, magnesium l- acetal carnatine and lugal's iodine with L-tyrosine ( amino acid). I don't have my gall bladder so I am also taking Triphala ( an Ayurvedic herbal supplement that has three different herbs in it) It has all the vitamin Bs and C in it. I read somewhere that we need to take bitter green like neem which is bitter too, for good digestion I thought gut is very important to repair and may be it will help me cure all my ailments. It did help a lot and also improved my insomnia. I have taken Triphala for 3 months now. My digestion has improved a lot and my skin is clear of blemishes. I love this herbal supplement. I was also taking alkaline water for few months. Some thing is sure helping. Just wanted update my condition andlet you know, after one years that I am doing much better. I thank God for it every day. I pray for every one else to have some relief from BMS. Amen!

For two years I have tried every doctor and remedy. At this point I believe the BMS is on the spectrum of an auto immune disease. Not a specific one like Sjogrens but it is also accompanied by an extremely dry mouth. I am very healthy except for the chronic, distracting pain. I don't know how to live a normal life with BMS because it is hard to talk and swallow without chewing gum. Currently I am trying to eliminate sugar, gluten and dairy from my diet so that I have no inflammation in my brain or gut. Please keep sharing any or all ideas.

I few months ago I woke up with my tongue swollen and painful. I was on a cruise ship, so I chalked it up to too many mimosas/bloodies and maybe the acid got me. Well, it didn't really go away. Here's the chain of events leading up to this: 1. I had a cold sore outbreak about 2 weeks before I left on my trip. Then, I had some allergy issues from pollen in the air and used some Afrin nose spray. What I didn't realize was that the Afrin EXPIRED like 3 years ago!!! It was an old bottle. Well, I left the next day and came down with a TERRIBLE sinus infection...TERRIBLE!!! Obviously, I infected myself with something from old medication (that had been snuffed up my nose! ). The day after the nose thing cleared up, I woke up with my tongue swollen and on fire. Again, I thought it was too many acidy drinks on the ship. After I got home, about a week later, It sort of went down a bit and I thought I was on the mend. Then, I got my teeth cleaned at the dentist. Dentist ruled out Thrush..... She gave me these new tooth whitening trays to try out and see if my sensitive teeth could handle them. So, I picked a day and tried them out. Later that night, my teeth started aching, so no more whitening for me! Then, maybe 2 days later, my tongue was swollen and on fire AGAIN! It would kind of be better in the AM, then progressively get worse by evening. I read a bunch of stuff on the internet to figure out what this could possible be.

First things up were: Thyroid, Hormones or vitamin deficiency. I went for blood work, and it all came back fine. In the meantime, I started taking vitamin supplements anyway....Time passes.....I have used all kinds of things to get the pain down, really to no avail........Then............I remembered that in 2005 I had Shingles/Herpes in my right EYE!!! I know, weird, right? SO I looked up exactly which nerve Chicken Pox hangs out in and what it does. Well guess what? It's the same nerve that it lives in when it gets in your eye!!! And the symptoms I have been having match SHINGLES in my MOUTH!

I did a search for BMS and Herpes Shingles etc and all KINDS of stuff came up! SO, I called my dentist and started on Valtrex yesterday. Call me crazy, but I think it may be helping. It has only been a day, and it's early yet, so we will see. Apparently, you can get it in your mouth without having blisters. I'll update in a few days on how this is working! Oh, and I am a 49 year old female in good health, on no meds, not overweight, BP nice and low. I hope this helps someone!!!

I had burning mouth syndrome for about a year. It was very painful at first but I found a doctor in Ithaca, Dr Richard Cohen. He is a doctor of homeopathic medicine and he is very knowledgeable regarding burning mouth. He prescribed supplements that did make it go away, unfortunately I had a skin reaction to the supplements. But by following his diet (no grains, they fuel the inflammation) it gradually decreased. I now know which foods I have to avoid ( raw strawberries, orange juice) and I have found foods that help (weirdly, hot pepperoni and chamomile tea.) So hang in there and keep working at it until you figure out what makes it worse and what helps. Keeping a food journal was very helpful.

Thank you Diane, I too have BMS, like you I feel I do the same, chew on my lip and my tongue seems to rub on my teeth all the time, certainly doesn't help!! Some days it's excruciating, and some days it's bearable, using the baking soda mouth rinse, that helps a bit, also Chewing sugar free gum, helps to moistened the mouth!! Going to try your relaxation remedy. I'd never heard of BMS, it's good to read about other people having the same and how they cope with this awful problem!!! All my doctor can give me is very strong drugs, which I'm not at all willing to take!!! So came online to look for alternative remedies and found this website. Thank you!

Carol, thank you so much for your reply! I hope you can find some relief from this little relaxation technique. In my case, things got better slowly. After the first week I could go hours without thinking about it. After that, it could be days without thinking about it. Now it comes and goes, mostly around supper time. But I know it will go away in a few hours.

I remember the Burning tongue feeling getting a little better after a teeth cleaning. I was worried all this playing around in there would make it worse, but no. I remember going to the grocery store after the appointment, running my tongue over my teeth and feeling: oh! It feels really clean. I KNOW it is clean so I don't need to check 50 times an hour!! I didn't make the connection then, but looking back and knowing what I know now, this was a big clue!

Do you eat vegetables every day....this might help

How are you doing now? Have you continued with the B12 and ALA? I have had BMS symptoms for a few months now, and am going to try your combination... just wondering how it's going now and if you kept up with the supplements since you posted? thanks...