Reference/Features

Dry mouth management in palliative and cancer care

11 mins read Dry mouth/xerostomia
Dry mouth is common after treatment for cancer and can affect patients' quality of life and oral health. Advice and management strategies can help minimise the distressing effects of this condition following radiotherapy and chemotherapy and during end-of-life care

Palliative care can be described as supportive care given to patients when curative treatment no longer works. It is often associated with oncology.

A debilitating side effect of cancer treatment is dry mouth or xerostomia. The dental nurse, as part of the dental team, can play an important role in helping to improve the quality of life for such patients.

Palliative care has been defined as ‘the active holistic care of patients with advanced progressive illness. Management of pain and other symptoms and provision of psychological, social and spiritual support is paramount. The goal of palliative care is achievement of the best quality of life for patients and their families. Many aspects of palliative care are also applicable earlier in the course of the illness in conjunction with other treatments' (World Health Organization (WHO), 2002).

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