Xerostomia: A continuous challenge for GDPs

A patient with xerostomia, experiencing poor saliva flow.

Evidence suggests that 10-30% of people are affected by xerostomia, the term used to describe the subjective experience of dry mouth. I work in a unit that rehabilitates a proportion of patients that have undergone radiotherapy as part of their management for head and neck cancer, and the side-effects of reduced salivary flow are all too clear in many cases.

This, however, is only one fairly clear-cut cause of dry mouth; in many other patients, the aetiology may require a more comprehensive history taking as xerostomia may be a symptom of a wider pathology. The intraoral clinical signs may manifest as increased caries prevalence, mucosal infections and salivary gland disease, although it is all too easy to neglect the appreciable impact that xerostomia has on patients’ quality of life; we all take eating, swallowing and speaking for granted, but these are key day-to-day activities with which patients suffer.