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Palliative cancer care - oral problems - Management
How should the underlying causes of dry mouth be managed?
- Treat any of the following underlying causes of dry mouth if appropriate:
- Adverse effect of a drug being taken. Reduce the dose or change the drug if possible.
- Dehydration. This should be reversed (except in the terminal phase then simple coping measures should be considered).
- Anxiety. This becomes increasingly common towards the end of life and should be managed appropriately.
- Candida infection. See Oral Candida infection.
- If on oxygen, consider humidification of this.
Clarification / Additional information
- Where possible, treatment is directed at the underlying cause of dry mouth. If this is not possible or is only partially successful, symptoms are treated. Possible causes of a dry mouth include dehydration (due to fluid loss or poor oral intake) or a lack of saliva production (due to salivary gland damage after radiotherapy, or adverse effects of some drugs).
- In practice, it is often very difficult to discontinue, or substitute drugs causing dry mouth. Many of these drugs are necessary for symptom control and salivary gland dysfunction is usually a drug-class adverse effect [Davies and Finlay, 2005].
Basis for recommendation
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