Medications and dry mouth

Reduced or altered production of saliva can be unpleasant for patients, but also carries other risks in relation to functional chewing and swallowing, and an increased risk of intra-oral pathology, including tooth decay. Dry mouth can develop for a number of reasons, some of which can be iatrogenic. The Veterans MATES project have produced an excellent resource addressing this issue – view the Therapeutic Brief here A comprehensive list of drugs inducing salivary gland dysfunction, xerostomia, and subjective sialorrhea has also been developed under guidance from the World Workshop on Oral Medicine VI and can be viewed here