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Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is an intra-oral burning sensation for which presently no medical or dental causes have been found, and in which the oral mucosa appears normal. It remains an unknown disease for which there is still no long-term treatment. The aim of this study was to assess the epithelial alteration of transient receptor potential vanilloid channel type 1 (TRPV1) and cannabinoid receptors type 1 (CB1) and type 2 (CB2) in the human tongue. The study was performed on eight healthy controls and eight BMS patients. All patients underwent a 3-mm punch biopsy at the anterolateral aspect of the tongue close to the tip. TRPV1, CB1 and CB2 immuno-histochemistry was carried out showing an altered expression of all receptors. In BMS patients there was increased TRPV1, decreased CB1 and increased CB2 expression in tongue epithelial cells also associated with a change in their distribution. It would appear that these receptors are related to BMS. These data could be useful for future characterization of BMS epithelial markers and therapy.

Objective: Oral lichen planus (OLP) is known to be associated with the risk of developing oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). The objective of this study was to investigate the clinicopathological features of OLP and the prevalence of malignant transformation in this setting., Materials and Methods: This retrospective study was carried out on 204 medical records of patients with histologically proven OLP who received long-term follow-up (range 6 months-12 years). Data were entered in an informatic database. The statistical analysis, when needed, was performed with the chi-squared test for significance (p < 0.05)., Results: At the moment of the diagnosis, out of 204 patients (163 female and 41 male; mean age 54.5 years), 107 patients (52.45%) suffered from systemic chronic diseases, in particular 46 (22.5%) from hepatitis C. Clinically, the reticular form of OLP was the predominant one and most patients had multiple oral sites of involvement. Fourteen patients showed extra-oral lesions. A percentage of malignant transformation less than 1% was found. In fact, two patients (0.98%) underwent a malignant transformation at a site previously diagnosed as OLP., Conclusions: At present, OLP is accepted as being a potential malignant disorder, therefore lifelong follow-up is recommended.