Dry mouth is a condition in which your salivary glands don’t produce enough saliva, leaving you with a persistent dry feeling in your mouth. If you experience this, be sure to tell us at Mantis Dentistry & Implant Center in Wilmette IL.
Dry mouth is not only uncomfortable, it can cause tooth damage. Saliva is necessary to keep the mouth lubricated, wash the food from teeth, and neutralize the acids that can cause plaque. Extensive cavities can occur in the absence of saliva for dental patients with chronic dry mouth.
Symptoms of dry mouth include:
- Dry, red or grooved tongue
- Persistent sore throat or hoarseness
- Sticky feeling in the mouth
- Saliva that seems thick and stringy
- Bad breath
- Struggles chewing, speaking and swallowing
- Changes in taste
- Difficulty wearing dentures (Mayo Clinic)
Contributing factors include medications and treatments, reduction in the body’s power to metabolize medication, chronic health issues and poor nutrition.
For example, chemotherapy medication can reduce saliva production and radiation treatments to the head and neck can damage salivary glands, decreasing saliva production.
Other medical conditions include diabetes, stroke, or yeast infection in the mouth.
Decongestants, blood pressure medications, antidepressants, and painkillers (all used extensively in Wilmette) are some of the medications that can lead to dry mouth.
It is common for allergy-prone Mantis Dentistry & Implant Center dental patients to complain of dry mouth when they start taking antihistamines during the hay fever season.
The following can also contribute to dry mouth:
- Snoring or breathing through the mouth
- Drinking alcohol
- Tobacco use (cigarettes, e-cigarettes, chewing tobacco)
- Recreational drugs
The treatment for dry mouth depends on what’s causing it. If you have persistent dry mouth but don’t know why, please let us know at Mantis Dentistry & Implant Center in Wilmette IL. Our services include dental implants. Patients from Wilmette, Evanston, Glencoe, North Shore, Kenilworth also come to us for cosmetic and restorative dentistry. Call us to set up an appointment today!
Contact Mantis Dentistry & Implant Center:
847-256-4776
Location (Tap to open in Google Maps):
1625 N. Sheridan Rd.
Wilmette, Illinois
60091
