Treatments For A Dry Mouth: Xerostomia
Do you have Xerostomia? Xerostomia is the medical term for a dry mouth caused by salivary gland dysfunction, medication, radiation therapy, or Sjogren’s syndrome. There are many treatments you can explore to stimulate saliva production and quality of life. This blog post will discuss some non-surgical and surgical treatments of Xerostomia that are available today!
What Is Xerostomia?
Xerostomia is a medical term that means mouth dryness. In a dry mouth, saliva flow is scarce.
Why Is Saliva Production Important?
Saliva is important for a xerostomia patient because saliva helps to break down food. It also protects the teeth, mouth, and throat from disease-causing bacteria that lead to gingivitis and periodontal diseases! Click here now
What Are The Symptoms Of Dry Mouth?
A dry mouth diagnosis is very important to prevent tooth decay and keep the mouth healthy. A dry mouth is a condition that affects your saliva production. Following are the dry mouth symptoms:
- Thick and stringy saliva.
- You might have used mouthwash to dry your tongue.
- The tongue sticks to the roof of the mouth.
- Problems with dry food
- Bad breath
- Ulcers
- Dry and chapped lips
- Sensitivity to oral thrush infections
- Tooth decay
- Has the aroma of a frog
What exactly are the Causes of Dry Mouth?
It is very important to determine the root causes of dry lips to avoid tooth decay.
Unwanted effects of certain medications:
Based on the American Dental Association, dry mouth can result from many prescription and unprescription drugs. Dry mouth could be caused primarily by medicines such as antihistamines (decongestants), antidepressants, pain medication (disease modifier agents), and antidepressants.
Unwanted effects of Certain Infections and Diseases
Based on the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCOR), dry mouth and tooth loss are side effects of medical conditions. Sjogren’s syndrome, HIV/AIDS and diabetes are a number of the medical conditions.
Unwanted effects of Certain Medical Treatments
Dry mouth can be caused by harm to the salivary system. Patients are often hesitant to seek treatment or worried about their teeth’s health. The damage could possibly be caused by improper oral surgery, radiotherapy for cancer patients, chemotherapy treatments, or radiation.
Oral Mucosa
Many people experiencing dry mouth are due to damage to their oral health during radiation therapy. Prior to going through any chemotherapy, head or neck cancer surgery, it is important to have your gums, teeth, and other surgeries checked with a dentist.
Dehydration
Dry mouth can result from sweating and nausea, diarrhea, blood losses, burns up, and unwanted weight loss. Dry mouth can result from the reduction of salivary flow by the major salivary glands. Find here
Sugary foods
High intakes of soda, dry foods, spicy and acidic foods could cause mouth dryness in many people. Drinking lots of water is a good idea, along with soft eatables and moist foods abundant with moisture. This will help prevent salivary dysfunction.
Surgery of the Salivary Glands
Dry mouth may also result from removing salivary cells.
Xerostomia Treatment:
There are numerous non-surgical possibilities for dry mouth treatment.
- To moisten the mouth, make use of a prescription toothpaste. It could stimulate saliva flow, relieve dry mouth symptoms, such as for example cracked lips, bleeding gums and difficulty speaking.
- You might have dry lips if you take a medicine which has side effects. Your physician may be able modify the dosage, prescribe something else or give fluoride gel to greatly help.
- When you have a reduced production of saliva due to increased risk factors, your doctor or dentist might prescribe artificial saliva replacements. Saliva substitutes, such as for example mouthwashes or saliva sprays, mimic the natural function of saliva. They offer moisture to the inside and outside of the mouth area.
- Use fluoride toothpaste for dry teeth or calcium supplements. Speak to your dentist to find out more.
- Contamination can be treated with antibiotics or antifungal drugs, such as for example oral medicine vi. Minor surgery can usually treat salivary gland blockages like stones.
These treatments will not work. If indeed they don’t, other surgical and non-surgical treatments are required. It could also be utilized to treat an underlying condition, such as diabetes or Sjogren’s syndrome.
Various other non-surgical treatments include:
Sugarless Lozenges & Chews:
A dry mouth can be relieved with sugar-free gum and sugar-free lozenges.
Sugar-Free Gum
Sugar-free chewing gum is available. This chewing gum contains xylitol which can be an oral medicine to avoid cavities. Sugar-free gum might contain xylitol which can cause gas and diarrhea when consumed in large amounts.
Sugar-Free Candy
Sugar-free candy, ice pops and sugar-free candy also contain Xylitol. This can help to restore saliva.
Lozenges:
Xylitol can help to decrease the amount of bacteria that grows and may cause bad breath, cavities, gum disease, and bad breath if it’s not applied for from your teeth frequently.
Stop drying out:
Drink plenty of water:
Get started doing a glass water, and keep it going during the day. For easier swallowing and chewing, drink water during meals. Drink at least 8 cups of water every day, and continue steadily to sip during the day to stay hydrated.
Make use of a Cool Mist Humidifier
It is very important to address dry mouth instantly. One way to prevent dryness is always to place a cup or humidifier next to your bed.
Breathe through Your Nose
The situation of mouth breathing while asleep is because salivary production drops to the cheapest circadian levels. Breathe through the nose in order to avoid dry mouth.
Use Xylitol
Xylitol prevents cavities and stimulates saliva flow. This can help to ease the salivation problems that are associated with Xerostomia. In addition, it has antimicrobial capabilities that prevent plaque buildup from teeth during the day.
Avoid:
- Dry mouth can result from taking over-the-counter medication, like decongestants or antihistamines.
- Stop drinking caffeinated beverages, smoking and dry mouth.
- Usually do not smoke to take care of dryness of the mouth.
Procedures for Surgery
A procedure can be carried out to treat dry mouth. This might include creating ducts in the gland to bring saliva in the mouth, or replacing salivary glands with extra glands extracted from the lower or inside the mouth.
The temporary sialogogue injection and labyrinthectomy surgeries are both surgical dry mouth treatments. This may result in serious oral health problems for patients if it is not done correctly.
Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy can treat dry lips. High-dose radiation enable you to kill the salivary glands. Though it may take almost a year before xerostomia symptoms improve, some cases will be gone very quickly.
When you have been identified as having cancer before, your doctor won’t recommend that you undergo dry mouth treatment using radiation therapy.
Salivary Stimulants
Salivary stimulants can be quite effective in reducing dryness. This treatment for dry mouth includes xylitol oral medication, which increases saliva production. It could be applied topically to the mouth or injected straight into the salivary canals.
Systemic Sialogogues
Systemic sialogogues make reference to dry mouth treatments, where patients are prescribed pills to increase saliva production. This xerostomia treatment stimulates salivary glands to create more.
Conclusion
A Xerostomia medical practitioner can help identify patients who’ve true salivary gland hypofunction using effective diagnostic criteria. Functional tests are also available. While there are no universal treatment rules, there are numerous options to handle the problem. You should use topical medications to relieve or prevent Xerostomia. This document summarizes the diagnostic and therapeutic options for treating hyposalivation.
