Dry mouth should be treated early to protect your smile.
Does your mouth feel like dry cotton when you wake up? This is not just something that bothers you. It is a very definite sign that your body is sending you a warning signal. You drink a glass of water and wish that the relief would be immediate. Unfortunately, that dry, sticky feeling keeps on stubbornly.
Actually, spit or saliva is the real champion in your mouth. It is like a liquid armor. Without it, your teeth will be totally defenseless. They battle with a little bad bacteria step by step every day.
Your Smile’s Inner Stream
Imagine your mouth as a complex network of rivers. An automobile engine requires oil to prevent gears from grinding. Your mouth is quite similar. It requires a constant flow of saliva to clear the mouth of food particles. Saliva keeps acids that are harmful to the teeth away and also deposits them with minerals such as calcium.
When such a river dries up, it is called xerostomia. The security net is lost. The amount of friction increases. Bad germs accumulate. They grow rapidly. This, in turn, leads to the acceleration of tooth decay and gum disease at a very alarming pace.
But for now, let’s focus more on the causes of such a closure of the system.
Mouth Dryness: Major Causes
1. Medicines
This is what we observe most of the time in our clinics. The majority of long-term dry mouth problems can be traced back to taking different types of medicines. Numerous commonly used medicine products have a dry mouth listed as one of their main side effects.
- Blood pressure medications (diuretics)
- Medications for anxiety and depression
- Medications for allergies and colds
Professor Doctor Coşkun Yıldız often points out a very sad fact. Patients are unaware of this connection. They brush and floss their teeth, but they still get cavities. How come? Because their regular allergy pill shuts off their salivary glands.
2. Mouth Breathing
If you encounter waking up in the middle of the night with a dry and sore throat, then it could be that you unconsciously breathe through your mouth while sleeping. This is like creating a strong airflow that dries the moisture of your mouth so that it can hardly produce again. The main causes of this are blocked nasal passages and sleep apnea.
3. Aging and Health Condition
Their capabilities to handle water and drugs also change as the body gets older. But the dry mouth problem is not simply an issue of getting old. Certain diseases carry out attacks on the glands that are responsible for the production of saliva. Besides that, diabetes and thyroid disorders can also result in the stopping of the saliva flow.
The Effect on Big Dentistry
So the question is. What does a dry mouth do to dentistry at large?
At Lema Dental Clinic, Turkey, we treat thousands of international patients every year. The patients who want to accomplish big changes, such as full jaw implants or custom veneers, are among them. Dentist Polen Akkılıç and her team always make it a point to check saliva flow first. Dry mouth severely lessens the lifespan of new teeth and impairs how gums heal around titanium implants. We do not merely construct beautiful teeth. We make sure they can survive in your mouth.
Dry Mouth Causes & What We Do
| Trigger / Cause | Risk to Your Smile | How We Treat It |
| Pills and Medicine | High risk of decayed roots | Special fluorides, xylitol |
| Mouth Breathing | Gums get sore and red | Hydration, breathing tests |
| Health Issues | Oral infections | Artificial saliva, tooth coats |
| Lack of Water | Minimal plaque | More water, less coffee |
Five Questions People Often Have About Dry Mouth
Indeed, it does. Without saliva to neutralize the acid, bacteria in the mouth have free rein. We have witnessed patients acquiring a multitude of cavities in a matter of a few months. What happened? Their saliva production dropped. It is the silent enamel killer.
It very well could be. Caffeine extracts water from your body. Are you a prolific coffee or tea drinker? If you do not consume plain water as well, you are likely to dry out your mouth rapidly.
It is a piece of the puzzle, but rarely the whole solution. In case a drug is responsible for the problem, water only acts as a short-term relief. Straight-up water does not have the beneficial proteins and minerals that natural human saliva contains.
Go through the warning label on your medicine package. Watch out for the term “dry mouth.” Did your mouth suddenly become dry after beginning a new medication? That is a very strong indication. Please don’t discontinue your medication, but do consult your doctor about the possibility of replacing it.
Based on our experience at Lema Dental Clinic, yes, you can. That is why we advise caution. We will offer you a special procedure. Perhaps you will be given a special mouthwash and be subjected to more frequent check-ups. We guarantee the health and safety of the gums that surround your implants.
- Navazesh, M., & Kumar, S. K. (2008). Measuring salivary flow: challenges and opportunities. The Journal of the American Dental Association, 139, 35S-40S.
- Turner, M. D., & Ship, J. A. (2007). Dry mouth and its effects on the oral health of elderly people. The Journal of the American Dental Association, 138(1), 15S-20S.
- Guggenheimer, J., & Moore, P. A. (2003). Xerostomia: etiology, recognition, and treatment. The Journal of the American Dental Association, 134(1), 61-69.
- Villa, A., Connell, C. L., & Abati, S. (2014). Diagnosis and management of xerostomia and hyposalivation. Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management, 11, 45-51.
- Sreebny, L. M., & Vissink, A. (Eds.). (2010). Dry mouth, the malevolent symptom: a clinical guide. John Wiley & Sons.
