An Approach to the Patient with a Dry Mouth
MedicineToday 2014; 15(4): 30-37 PEER REVIEWED FEATURE 2 CPD POINTS An approach to the patient with a dry mouth Key points • The subjective complaint of ELHAM AFLAKI MD; TAHEREH ERFANI MD; NICHOLAS MANOLIOS MB BS(Hons), PhD, MD, FRACP, FRCPA; xerostomia needs to be MARK SCHIFTER FFD, RCSI(Oral Med), FRACDS(Oral Med) differentiated from true salivary hypofunction. Dry mouth is a common and disabling problem. After exclusion of treatable • Salivary hypofunction can significantly reduce quality causes, treatment is symptomatic to prevent the consequences of salivary of life through its adverse hypofunction, such as tooth decay and infection of the oral mucosa. effects on taste, mastication, swallowing, cleansing of the erostomia, or the subjective feeling of neuropathic-induced orofacial dysaesthesia) mouth, killing of microbes a dry mouth, is a common complaint. and psychological and psychiatric disorders, and speech. It is often a consequence of salivary such as anxiety and depression. • Salivary hypofunction is a hypofunction (hyposalivation), in substantive risk factor for X which there is objective evidence of reduced NORMAL SALIVA PRODUCTION dental caries, oral mucosal salivary output or qualitative changes in saliva. Under normal physiological conditions, the disease and infection, Typically, patients complain of oral dryness salivary glands produce 1000 to 1500 mL of particularly oral candidiasis. only when salivary secretion is reduced by more saliva daily as an ultrafiltrate from the circu- • Patients should be than half.1 As saliva has a crucial role in taste lating plasma. Therefore, simple dehydration investigated for contributory perception, mastication, swallowing, cleansing reduces saliva production. The parotid glands and underlying causes, of the mouth, killing of microbes and speech, are the major source of serous saliva (60 to 65% which include drugs and abnormalities in saliva production can signif- of total saliva volume), producing the stimu- rheumatological diseases.
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