Comments on: Fighting the dry mouth epidemic http://www.davisenterprise.com/forum/opinion-columns/fighting-the-dry-mouth-epidemic/ Yolo County, California Sat, 25 May 2013 10:11:38 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: samer alassaad http://www.davisenterprise.com/forum/opinion-columns/fighting-the-dry-mouth-epidemic/comment-page-1/#comment-362873 samer alassaad Wed, 10 Oct 2012 06:07:34 +0000 http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=235856#comment-362873 In addition to being a side effect of many medications and an undesired consequence of other treatments, dry mouth is associated with some oral and systemic conditions/diseases that should always be considered when managing dry mouth.

Oral: Salivary gland related – such as parotid gland inflammation, salivary gland and duct stones, mucocele, partial/complete salivary obstruction.

Systemic: Sjögren syndrome , diabetes mellitus, human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, scleroderma, sarcoidosis, lupus, Alzheimer’s disease, dehydration.

(Ship JA, Pillemer SR, Baum BJ. Xerostomia and the geriatric patient. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2002 Mar;50(3):535-43.)

]]> By: Rich Rifkin http://www.davisenterprise.com/forum/opinion-columns/fighting-the-dry-mouth-epidemic/comment-page-1/#comment-354530 Rich Rifkin Mon, 08 Oct 2012 17:27:22 +0000 http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=235856#comment-354530 “Dry mouth occurs as a result of the abnormal reduction of saliva most commonly due to medications, in addition to radiation therapy in the head and neck region and some diseases.” Probably the most common disease, not specifically mentioned in this article, which causes dry mouth is diabetes. Here is a link to an article which discusses that. Anyone who suffers from chronic dry mouth should discuss with his doctor if he has diabetes or pre-diabetes.

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