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Is dry mouth a symptom of a disease?

The role of saliva, the secretion of the salivary glands located in the oral cavity, is ambiguous. In addition to the fact that saliva takes part in the initial processes of digestion, wetting the food bolus and starting the processes of cleavage, it is one of the tools of the immune system that has a bacteriostatic effect and is able to inhibit the reproduction of infectious agents that enter the body through the oral cavity.

Quantitative and qualitative indicators of saliva depend on the physiological state of the body, which means that many pathological conditions in the body are reflected in the nature of salivation and the effectiveness of saliva as a digestive and antimicrobial tool. Both increased salivation and insufficient secretion of saliva can signal disturbances in the functioning of various body systems.

An insufficient amount of saliva in the oral cavity causes a feeling of dry mouth and can be a sign of a number of disorders that in some cases a person can get rid of without the participation of medicine (for example, with insufficient fluid intake during the day or in the case of predominantly breathing through the mouth, when dryness occurs mucous membrane). But often dry mouth is a sign of a disease and requires diagnosis, identification and treatment of latent diseases.

Diseases and conditions causing dry mouth:

Dehydration of the body associated with metabolic disorders (diabetes insipidus , cachexia, hypernatremia) or with an increase in body temperature in a number of diseases, as well as overheating,
Hyperglycemic coma,
Infectious diseases of the oral cavity, nasopharynx and pharynx,
Infectious diseases accompanied by diarrhea and / or sweating,
Disorders of the kidneys,
bleeding,
anemia ,
Extensive burns,
Radiation exposure,
Allergic reactions,
Overexcitation of the nervous system or mental abnormalities,
Damage to the salivary glands or peripheral nerve branches that regulate salivation,
Brain or spinal cord injury.

A dry mouth can be a side effect:

taking a number of medications,
the use of certain treatment methods,
having bad habits.

Dry mouth can cause a lot of trouble when wearing removable dentures, when working with speech stress, and also become an obstacle to normal fermentation of food in the oral cavity and swallowing movements. For this reason, it is worth considering dry mouth as a sign of illness and seek medical help in all cases when dry mouth is felt constantly and does not depend on the regime of fluid intake by the body .