Table of contents:
- How to deal with dry mouth that you need to know
- 1. Find out the cause
- 2. Increase saliva production
- 3. Apply a healthy lifestyle
- Various natural ways to deal with dry mouth
- 1. Drink plenty of water
- 2. Chew gum
- 3. Stop smoking and drinking alcohol
- 4. Avoid certain drugs
- 5. Maintain oral hygiene
- 6. Use a humidifier
- 7. Using ginger
The function of saliva is very important for your body. The saliva produced by the salivary glands acts as a neutralizer for acids in the mouth and prevents bacterial growth.
If the mouth feels dry, it's not just decreased appetite. The health of teeth and gums will also be adversely affected. Check out some of the proven ways to deal with dry mouth here.
How to deal with dry mouth that you need to know
Saliva is useful for improving the function of the sense of taste to detect taste, chew, and swallow food. In fact, saliva contains a number of enzymes needed by the digestive system.
When saliva production decreases, dry mouth can occur. This condition is known in the medical term xerostomia. The causes of dry mouth also vary, such as using certain drugs, aging problems, or side effects of cancer radiation therapy.
So that you avoid and are free from dry mouth problems, try to apply the following ways to deal with dry mouth.
1. Find out the cause
Not classified as a dangerous condition, but xerostomia can also bother you. Therefore, to find out how to deal with dry mouth you need to know what causes it.
In addition to poorly maintained moisture, the cause of dry mouth can also occur due to consumption of certain drugs. Medicines to treat depression, anxiety, anti-pain, allergies, or diarrhea sometimes dry out your mouth.
If you are taking medication to cure the disease and feel very disturbed by dry mouth, changing medication is the solution.
Consult your doctor to help you choose alternative drugs and adjust the dosage. Meanwhile, for dry mouth due to chemotherapy, Alzheimer's disease, or Sjögren's syndrome, the way to overcome this is by increasing saliva production.
2. Increase saliva production
To increase saliva production, your doctor will recommend a variety of products that you can try. Surely the doctor has also considered the safety of the drugs you will use.
These products consist of toothpaste containing fluoride, mouthwash containing xylitol, or a moisturizing gel formulated for dry mouth.
Your doctor may prescribe several drugs to increase saliva production, such as pilocarpine (salagen) and cevimeline (evoxac).
Reporting from the page The American Academy of Oral Medicine, the drug cevimeline has been approved by the FDA in the United States (the equivalent of the Indonesian Food and Drug Administration) for Sjögren's syndrome patients to treat dry mouth. Pilocarpine is also safe for use in people undergoing head and neck radiation therapy.
The drugs cevimeline and pilocarpine work with certain nerves to increase the amount of saliva, thus making the mouth more comfortable for speaking and swallowing.
You can also try ways to deal with dry mouth naturally, by adding spices such as fennel seeds, chilies, or cardamom to food or drinks. The spicy taste of chilies can stimulate the production of more salivary glands.
Fennel or cardamom seeds can eliminate bad breath caused by dry mouth and prevent saliva production from decreasing.
You can enjoy these two spices in the form of a tea drink. Remember, if dry mouth is already causing irritation, you should avoid spicy or sour foods.
3. Apply a healthy lifestyle
Changing your lifestyle to be healthier is a way to deal with dry mouth from happening again. The method is quite easy, follow some important rules below.
- Do not use alcohol or peroxide based mouthwashes.
- Reducing your caffeine intake from coffee, tea, chocolate, soft drinks, or alcohol that makes you thirsty quickly.
- Limit dry, sugary, or salty foods that make you thirsty quickly and injure your mouth.
Maintain oral hygiene with regular toothbrushes and dental floss.
Various natural ways to deal with dry mouth
Even though it doesn't really cure it completely, at least this natural way can help relieve dry mouth symptoms. Here are natural ways to deal with dry mouth that you can do at home:
1. Drink plenty of water
Drinking lots of water can help meet your body's fluid needs as well as a way to deal with dry mouth due to dehydration. When your mouth is dry, all you can do is keep it moist.
Always provide a drinking bottle wherever you go to keep your mouth moist in the midst of busy activity.
2. Chew gum
Once your mouth feels dry, try chewing sugar-free gum. This method you can do to deal with dry mouth as well as to help stimulate saliva production and keep the mouth moist.
In addition, you can also inhale cough drops, throat drops, or candies that contain xylitol, because they are free of sugar, which can help treat dry mouth.
3. Stop smoking and drinking alcohol
Initially it feels heavy and it is difficult to resist smoking or drinking alcohol when it becomes a habit. However, you don't want your dry mouth problem to get worse, right?
Alcohol and cigarettes can increase your risk of becoming dehydrated, which can make your mouth feel drier. Not only that, alcohol can also trigger the body to urinate more frequently.
Try to distract yourself by chewing gum to help reduce the urge to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol. Apart from being a way to deal with dry mouth, this can also make your body healthier.
4. Avoid certain drugs
Quoted from Academy of General Dentistry, as many as 90 percent of dry mouth cases are caused by the consumption of drugs. Some types of drugs that have side effects in the form of dry mouth are:
- Antihistamines
- Hypertension drugs
- Pain relievers
- Medicines containing hormones
- Bronchodilators or asthma medications
Avoid these drugs for a while. Consult your doctor to get a prescription for other drugs that do not provide similar side effects.
5. Maintain oral hygiene
Make sure you are maintaining proper oral hygiene as well as oral health. For example, by brushing your teeth properly and using fluoridated toothpaste, so that dry mouth problems can be resolved immediately.
If necessary, try other ways of dealing with dry mouth problems by using a mouthwash that contains xylitol. Why? Because this content is claimed to help in stimulating saliva production so that it can be used as an appropriate way to deal with dry mouth.
6. Use a humidifier
Humidifier can help humidify the air in the room because usually, the air in the room feels drier due to poor air circulation.
This method is able to overcome the problem of dry mouth for those of you who have a habit of sleeping, aka breathing through the mouth while sleeping. That way, your mouth will feel more moist when you wake up in the morning.
7. Using ginger
The content of ginger, which can be formed into mouth fresh sprays, teas, and other products, is claimed to help stimulate the salivary glands. So you can use it to increase saliva production.
A clinical trial conducted in 2017 on 20 people led to the conclusion that ginger sprays can be an alternative treatment for dry mouth.
