TABLE 1.

Clinical characteristics of patients with burning mouth symptoms; mean ± SD, median [IQR], n (%).

	Primary (n = 50)	Intermediate (n = 27)	Secondary (n = 21)	p Value	p Value
					P vs. S	P vs. I	S vs. I
Age (years)	63.3 ± 6.1	68.3 ± 7.6	65.8 ± 7.9	0.011*	0.153	0.002*	0.267
Flow rate (mL/min)
UWS	0.17 [0.14]	0.16 [0.23]	0.11 [0.12]	0.066	0.028*	0.405	0.429
SWS	0.83 [0.47]	0.81 [0.85]	0.82 [0.81] a	0.957	0.765	0.439	0.533
UWS ≤0.1 mL/min	6 (12.0)	9 (33.3)	10 (47.6)	0.004*	0.004*	0.024*	0.315
SWS ≤0.7 mL/min	14 (28.0)	12 (44.4)	8 (40.0) a	0.308	0.329	0.145	0.761
Duration (months)	12.0 [20.0]	24.0 [56.0]	6.0 [24.5]	0.298	0.557	0.168	0.227
Range	2–180	2–300	2–120
Distribution
Unilateral	5 (10.0)	10 (37.0)	6 (28.6)	0.015*	0.072	0.004*	0.357
Bilateral	45 (90.0)	17 (63.0)	15 (71.4)
Area
Tongue only	33 (66.0)	11 (40.7)	13 (61.9)	0.095	0.902	0.094	0.334
Tongue with other areas	15 (30.0)	15 (55.6)	7 (33.3)
Other areas except the tongue	2 (4.0)	1 (3.7)	1 (4.8)
Diurnal pattern
Increasing	19 (38.0)	10 (37.0)	7 (33.3)	0.169	0.061	1	0.099
Decreasing	1 (2.0)	0 (0.0)	3 (14.3)
Continuous	15 (30.0)	9 (33.3)	9 (42.9)
Irregular	15 (30.0)	8 (29.6)	2 (9.5)

Note: The ANOVA or Kruskal–Wallis test was used for continuous variables to analyze the differences across the three groups, and the Student's t‐test or Mann–Whitney U‐test was used for continuous variables between the groups. Pearson's chi‐squared test or Fisher's exact test was used to analyze differences between categorical variables.

Abbreviations: I, intermediate type of burning mouth syndrome (BMS); IQR, interquartile range; P, primary type of BMS; S, secondary type of BMS; SD, standard deviation; SWS, stimulated whole saliva; UWS, unstimulated whole saliva.

^a SWS could not be collected from one patient who could not chew the paraffin wax because of missing posterior teeth.

^* p < 0.05.