Effects of for burning mouth syndrome: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND

Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) lacks optimal treatments. This systematic review assessed , a natural product with anti-inflammatory/antioxidant properties, for managing this chronic pain disorder.

METHODS

PubMed, the Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Web of Science, Scopus, and four Chinese databases were searched until February, 2025 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving adults with BMS. products alone or in combination with conventional medications were included. Outcomes included pain, symptoms, psychological outcomes and salivary function. The GRADE approach was used to assess evidence certainty.

RESULTS

Six RCTs with 336 participants were included. Compared to vitamin B complex alone, capsules alone significantly improved the pain-intensity-based effective rate (RR 6.00, 95 % CI [1.61, 22.34]). Compared to conventional medicines, capsules with conventional medicines significantly increased subjective pain scores (MD 1.51, 95 % CI [1.19, 1.83]), symptom-based effective rate (RR 1.27, 95 % CI [1.14, 1.42]), daily water intake score (MD 1.32, 95 % CI [1.00, 1.64]), sleep duration score (MD 1.88, 95 % CI [1.61, 2.15]), and decreased anxiety and depression scores, while oral liquid combined with mecobalamin significantly reduced 10-point VAS (MD -1.40, 95 % CI [-2.19, -0.61]) and increased the unstimulated salivary flow rate (USFR).The certainty of evidence was all graded as low.

CONCLUSIONS

products may improve pain intensity, symptoms, psychological outcomes, and salivary function in patients with BMS. However, the low certainty of evidence due to study limitations and small sample sizes suggests the need for well-designed, large-scale real-world studies to confirm these findings and establish their clinical applicability.

PROTOCOL REGISTRATION

PROSPERO (CRD420250651920).