{"id":5987,"date":"2018-03-19T10:56:10","date_gmt":"2018-03-18T21:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/purefoodnz.wpengine.com\/?post_type=post&#038;p=789"},"modified":"2023-08-02T20:27:42","modified_gmt":"2023-08-02T10:27:42","slug":"xerostomia-dry-mouth-youre-not-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepurefoodco.com\/aus\/blog\/xerostomia-dry-mouth-youre-not-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"Dry mouth? You\u2019re not alone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thepurefoodco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Canva-Clear-Glass-Pitcher-Pouring-Water-on-Clear-Drinking-Glass-1-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-791\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Xerostomia<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A dry mouth, or \u2018Xerostomia\u2019 is a problem suffered by many and can have an impact on our chewing and swallowing ability. It can be a debilitating condition and cause all sorts of secondary problems. A dry mouth can develop as a result of general ageing, some medications, post-radiation effects for head and neck cancer, smoking, coffee and alcohol intake, thyroid issues, HIV, and diabetes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How can a dry mouth affect your swallowing ability and quality of life? It can:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Make chewing more difficult and sometimes painful.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Make it harder to push food and pills from the mouth to the throat for swallowing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cause pills to get stuck<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cause changes in taste<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Contribute to increased tooth decay and gum disease<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Contribute to bad breath, discolored teeth, and tongue stickiness<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Contribute to increased yeast growth and development of oral thrush<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What can you do about it?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Drink plenty of water<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Try taking coated pills, or request medications in liquid form if possible<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Avoid drinking alcohol and smoking<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reduce coffee<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Avoid using alcohol-based mouthwash<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Alternate liquids and solids during meals<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Chew sugarless gum or suck sugar-free hard lollies<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Try using a humidifier<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ask your local pharmacy if they have an artificial saliva substitute<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As mentioned earlier, post-radiation effects from head and neck cancer can cause xerostomia. This month\u2019s blog is dedicated to raising awareness around head and neck cancer and dysphagia.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Xerostomia A dry mouth, or \u2018Xerostomia\u2019 is a problem suffered by many and can have an impact on our chewing and swallowing ability. It can be a debilitating condition and cause all sorts of secondary problems. A dry mouth can develop as a result of general ageing, some medications, post-radiation effects for head and neck [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6757,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","wds_primary_category":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,26],"tags":[77,198,211,222],"class_list":["post-5987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-dietitian","tag-dry-mouth","tag-swallowing-difficulty","tag-water","tag-xerostomia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepurefoodco.com\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepurefoodco.com\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepurefoodco.com\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepurefoodco.com\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepurefoodco.com\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5987"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepurefoodco.com\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6759,"href":"https:\/\/thepurefoodco.com\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5987\/revisions\/6759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepurefoodco.com\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepurefoodco.com\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepurefoodco.com\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepurefoodco.com\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}