Dry Mouth: When Your Mouth Feels Like the Sahara Desert

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Dry mouth or also known as Xerostomia is a very uncomfortable condition.

Dealing with chronic dry mouth is uncomfortable. This condition starts when the mouth’s saliva glands don’t produce adequate amounts of saliva.

It can happen due to several reasons, including smoking, dehydration, cancer treatment, certain medications, depression, anxiety, or autoimmune disorders.

The causes why you suffer from dry mouth disease can be varied. And only a health professional or a dentist in San Diego will help to define them.

Our saliva plays a major part in our oral health because it helps keep our mouth moist.

When the mouth dries, soft tissues inside can become excessively dry irritating the area.

If these tissues become irritated, there may be swelling and even bleeding because these tissues are not meant to be dry.

Saliva contains many enzymes as well. These enzymes help keep our mouth and teeth healthy.

It can even reduce the chances of tooth decay. Saliva aids dissolve food better when chewing our food and also with digestion.

If there is no saliva when the mouth is dry, can bring consequences for the rest of the body.

It neutralizes harmful acids to teeth too and contains minerals that assist in repairing microscopic decay.

So the lack of saliva contributes to oral health problems.

 

Healthy Advantages of Saliva

  • Saliva helps you to chew and enjoy your food better
  • It keeps your mouth wet, moist and comfortable
  • Fights against tooth decay protecting your mouth from germs
  • Enzymes that are in our saliva contribute to better digestion
  • Saliva also protect the enamel from harmful acids

 

Dry Mouth For Some Medical Reasons

 

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The mouth may dry out due to the side effects of some medicines.

It is crucial that you don’t take pills without a prescription.

Prescript medications can cause side effects, now imagine those without one.

It can be much worse. The adverse impacts of some medicines for diabetes, anxiety, or illness can cause dry mouth.

But that’s not all, also all kinds of drugs for depression, epilepsy, diarrhea, allergies or pain.

Cancer patients who should go through chemotherapy may suffer these results as well.

Radiation can strike salivary glands causing the inevitable damage to the rest of the soft tissues inside the mouth.

Chemotherapy can severely dry out the mouth. You must read all medicine labels.

You must be aware of pills that may cause your allergies.

If you have pain, it is better to go to a physician or your Clairemont dentist, who will make a prescription based on your symptoms and your clinic file.

If you forget things easily, take with you a small notebook where you can write down which medicines cause you side effects.

Or if you had a disease that could cause reactions with other pills.

Even if it is diarrhea or tiny colic, don’t take medicines if you don’t know how your body is going to react.

And don’t search on Google for answers to cure dry mouth either. Go immediately with a professional.

 

Nerve Injury may Cause Dry Mouth

 

An injury in the salivary glands can generate the loss of saliva. But again I insist that this is just a guess.

Some syndromes can block the salivary glands too.

With this blocking, it is possible that the saliva doesn’t appear as it should, causing a dry mouth.

These injuries can come as a result of a damaged nerve by an accident or surgery near to the neck, face, or head area.

If you are visiting us at our office in Clairemont, Mesa is sure of telling our dentist if you just had surgery.

 

Dehydration, the Most Common Cause

 

 

Maybe this is the most obvious reason of all. And it is not permanent in most situations.

People who drink large amounts of alcohol or coffee may have affection, and dry mouth is the most common.

Do you drink enough water a day?

Some people walk throughout life without drinking a single glass of water a day.

Some people don’t remember when the last time they drank water was.

Some may laugh at that answer, but I have concerns about someone answering this because it not only leads to dry mouth.

Not taking enough water can damage organs in our body, mainly the kidneys.

There are also those who forget to hydrate while running or exercising.

Factors that are causing dehydration too.

For example, excessive exposure to the sun, excess sweating, diarrhea or loss of blood can also contribute.

If you are planning to trip to a city different than yours, make sure you know what the weather will be there.

If the place is warm, be prepared so there are no surprises.

You can quickly dehydrate due to a bunch of factors and can wreak havoc on your overall health.

Your Lifestyle and Hormonal Changes

 

Your lifestyle can contribute to dry mouth too.

If you are a smoker, better watch out because it can lead to dry mouth or even worse.

Your San Diego dentist can tell if you are a smoker too.

Smoking can severely stain teeth.

Plus, studies reveal that smoking too much may cause mouth cancer too.

So, besides all threats that tobacco represents for your overall health, take into account your oral wellness.

Now, talking about hormones, women can be more exposed to hormonal changes.

Pregnant women are vulnerable to radical hormone changes, and in fact, every month they are exposed due to their period.

Hormones such as estrogens influence the composition of saliva.

All this deriving in dry mouth, which is why it is frequent for women to have dry mouth a lot when they suffer from extreme changes in hormones.

How to Identify Symptoms and what can I do about it?

 

 

Underline on all this is that you need to develop healthy habits.

Health problems are often unavoidable, but there is stuff you can do to prevent it.

Perhaps the most obvious is to say that you must develop a proper diet.

A lot of people say so all the time, and maybe it’s boring for you at this point.

But honestly, when you feed yourself correctly, it shows in your strength, in your energy, and in your spirit as well. So:

  • Drink enough amounts of water per day.
  • Once and a while chewing sugar-free gum to stimulate the production of saliva.
  • If you are a smoker, keep it cool for a while or quit it.
  • The intake of Vitamin C improves mouth tissue health repairing damage induced by excessive dryness.

And the best advice ever is to visit your dentist in Clairemont regularly and your doctor’s office too.

Author

  • Aparicio Serena

    Dr. Serena Aparicio, DDS, is a highly accomplished dentist specializing in cosmetic and implant dentistry. With over 23 years of experience worldwide, Dr. Aparicio has established herself as a leading expert in her field. Fluent in both English and Spanish, she has practiced dentistry in several countries, including the USA, Canada, Germany, China, England, France, South Korea, Turkey, and Costa Rica.

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