People need saliva to dampen their mouths. It also helps to cleanse the mouth, swallow, and digest the food. Saliva present in people’s mouths help to stop infections like fungi and control bacteria. When the mouth of a person stop making enough saliva that means that, the person is facing dry mouth problem. This problem can cause many other problems and that is the way it needs to be monitored constantly. Dry mouth can cause other more serious oral problems. This problem is very common in older people. With growing age, people start having medical problems, and dry mouth can be the result of those problems or it can happen because of the medication is taken to control diseases. There are more than 500 medicines in all over the world, which can cause this problem. The medical term for this problem is xerostomia.
There are many reasons for this problem to occur. People use medicines a lot and there are those people who take medicines without description. When a doctor prescribes any kind of medicine, he would know its side effects and he would prescribe some medicine as a counter attack but when a person use medicine, he would know the side effects and will not use any medicine for counter attract and that can cause diseases like dry mouth. There are many drugs, which people use for different reasons such as anxiety, pain, allergies, and colds, obesity, acne, epilepsy, hypertension, diarrhea, nausea, psychotic disorders, urinary incontinence, asthma and all these drugs can cause dry mouth.
There are some medical problems too, which are causing this problem such as Sjögren’s syndrome, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, anemia, cystic fibrosis, rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, and mumps.
The glands of mouth produce saliva and it they get damaged, it can cause the reduction of saliva making. The damage to the glands can occur because of radiation to the head and neck, and chemotherapy treatments, for cancer. It can also happen because of damage in nerve system, dehydration, fever, and excessive sweating, vomiting, and blood loss. Use of tobacco and smoking can also cause a reduction is saliva production.
People who are facing this problem will feel thirsty all the time; their mouth will remain dry and sticky. The skin on the corner of lips will split and the person will feel soreness in the mouth. The person who is facing this issue will have trouble in speaking and chewing food. He will also have trouble in breathing.
First, you will have to talk to your doctor; he will let you know if the problem is happening because of certain medication or diseases. If the medication is causing this problem, the doctor will change the amount of dose or he will change the medicine altogether. Some doctors suggest washing mouth time to time in a day, it can solve the problem or at least it will control it. There are also medicines, which increase the production of saliva but do not take any kind of medicine with doctor’s prescription.
This article has provided you with all the information to know what is drymouth, and here are some tips to prevent this problem. Start drinking lots of water and stop having drinks with sugar. Eating sugar free candies can also help. Use toothpaste, which has fluoride in it. Using room vaporizer to add moisture to the bedroom air is also a good option.
