Fighting dry mouth

If your dental professional tells you that you have “xerostomia,” it doesn’t mean you have a bizarre, serious ailment. It means you have a condition colloquially known as “dry mouth,” where your mouth feels persistently dry due to lack of saliva.

Dry mouth is caused by a variety of factors, such as anxiety, alcohol or drug use, smoking or dehydration. It’s also a common side effect of many diseases, treatments, and medications, including chemotherapy, antidepressants and antihistamines.

Dry mouth can be more than just a minor annoyance – it can actually affect the health of your teeth. Saliva controls bacteria and fungi in your mouth, which helps prevent tooth decay. If your saliva isn’t naturally washing away food particles, that can lead to bacterial growth.

While usually you can resolve the problem with an adjustment of your type or dosage of medication, it’s important to ask your dentist and hygienist for their input. They may also prescribe a special mouthwash, or advise you to use a saliva substitute. And they’ll definitely remind you to drink plenty of water!

Original Source: http://www.brightnow.com/our-blog/how-ocmbat-dry-mouth

Do you have it – Dry Mouth?

Symptoms of dry mouth may include trouble swallowing, cracked lips, sores inside the mouth, bad breath and thirst. Dry mouth, also known as Xerostomia in the medical world, can be the result of any number of factors:

• dehydration
• medication side effects
• symptom of a medical condition
• nerve damage
• smoking

Resolving the uncomfortable feeling of dry mouth may depend on the severity and source of the issue. However, there are a handful of home remedies that can help alleviate the problem. Stimulating saliva production is one technique and can be achieved by drinking lots of water, chewing sugar-free gum, sucking on sugar-free hard candies or even using a saliva substitute (can be purchased over the counter). Caffeine contributes to mouth dryness, so try to limit your intake. Avoid mouthwashes containing alcohol, as that ingredient can make your mouth drier.

Other tricks to help you deal with dry mouth include: breathing through your nose, using a humidifier at home, eliminating any use of tobacco and avoiding salty foods and soda pop. The final piece of advice is, of course, to make regular visits to the dentist to monitor the issue should it progress and worsen.