DRY MOUTH MANAGEMENT
How do we
Manage Dry Mouth
Fluid Replacement and Mouth Moistening. This is necessary to
diminish soreness in the mouth and oral discomfort. Also to to aid
speech and swallowing.
It
is recommended to chew chewing gum to stimulate saliva glands. This
gum should ideally have Xylitol added to it and also be sugar
free to avoid decay. We recommend Recaldent Chewing Gum which
comes in both Mint and Tropical flavours. One stick or two pellets
can be chewed for 20 minutes after meals. Recaldent also has the
added benefit of stopping microscopic tooth decay that easily starts
up in dry mouth patients.
Glandular massage. Massaging the salivary glands can reduce
tenderness. this tenderness is due to thickened viscous saliva
secretions that become retained in the salivary ductal system.
Saliva substitutes. This is especially important if there is no
saliva gland function, or the saliva tissue has been removed.
Substitute saliva with water. This is probably the simplest thing we
can do. We recommend two glasses of water after meals or sipping as
necessary during the day. Other oral lubricants such as Breeze
Morning Fresh Oral Gel are also excellent. This gel has many
ingredients which not only aid in soothing damaged tissue but also
lubricate tissue extremely well.
Use
Anticariogenic Aids such as Recaldent Mousse to cover the
teeth at night and help stop decay. Recaldent Mousse contains the
same active ingredients as Recaldent Gum. It aids in re-mineralising
tooth structure whilst also aiding in stopping adhesion of plaque
film to the tooth surface. Plaque film contains bacteria, sugars and
acids that damage teeth.
Pilocarpine. This drug appears to be a useful salivary stimulant
but has side effects. The patient needs to be screened for heart
disease and diabetes and other medications first. These side effects
can make this drug unacceptable in most cases. But we mention it
here for completeness.
Avoid acid juices and carbonated drinks. Most commercial soft
drinks, processed juices or fluid replacement drinks are acid in
nature. This is done to keep them stable. Due to lack of saliva
buffering abilities these drinks should be avoided.
Avoid oral swabs such as Lemon and Glycerine Mouth Swabs designed to
"freshen the mouth"
Avoid difficult to eat foods such as bread and chicken
Avoid in between meal snacks which are high in carbohydrate as these
contain sugars which encourages dental plaque and decay.
Continued speaking
during the day, causes your saliva to thicken
representing the onset of more dry mouth. This eventually leads to
bad breath production. By the way, from the age of 25 on, we all
begin producing less saliva. It goes downhill from that point on, so
there is always a greater chance to produce more bad breath as we
all get older.
Smoking is a major
factor in dry mouth.
When you smoke you are effectively
starving the mouth of oxygen, thus promoting the overgrowth of
anaerobic bacteria that create the smelly sulphur products.
Unfortunately smoking is addictive and therefore not easy to cut
down or quit. Smoking effectively
decreases the ph level of your mouth and dries your oral tissues. Consider that if
you smoke you need to be paranoid about your breath. It is therefore
essential that all smokers use some form of breath system as well as
chewing gum during the day to help keep adequate supply of saliva
and oxygen to the mouth.
Alcohol causes dry
mouth. Alcohol can turn occasional bad breath into horrible bad
breath and lousy taste. It doesn't matter if the alcohol is wine or
beer, or even in mouthwash, that can be bought over the counter. Alcohol
makes the mouth extremely dry very rapidly, and this can lead to
instant halitosis. Did you know that some commercial mouth rinse
contain up to 26% alcohol whereas wine only contains 11%
If you snore,
or mouth breath, you are
making your mouth, tongue and throat very dry during the
evening. This is when most sulphur compounds are produced. Because
mouth breathing dries off the tongue, it can also be a serious
initiator of bad breath.
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