Dry mouth or xerostomia can arise from many different causes. As you age, saliva production reduces, thereby causing dry mouth. The brain in an old person is less sensitive to thirst, and so not enough water is drunk and so less saliva is produced. Coffee and over the counter drugs, such as analgesics, diuretics and anti-depressants, to name but just a few can also cause dry mouth. Dry mouth can make you feel, like your tongue is a dried-up rag in your mouth. It also makes it difficult for you to swallow, eat or talk. Saliva is anti-bacterial and will keep the mouth region healthy. So without this health-giving substance, your tongue may be subjected to cracking and also will contribute to other conditions such as tooth decay, mouth ulcers and bad-breath.
Let's look at some of the home remedies for dry mouth.
The first one is to drink a lot of fluids. You can drink any amount as long as it's not soft drinks, which are very acidic. The best is water. Carry a small bottle of water and take sips every so often. Drinking soft drinks or coffee, when there’s not much saliva, can cause tooth decay, as there is no saliva to neutralize the acidic soft drink. The normal person has to drink at least two liters of water to keep the body hydrated. So, a person with dry mouth may have to drink even more.
One of the home remedies for dry mouth is using the mind. In your mind, see a lemon, and see yourself cutting it in half, and then see yourself squirt the juice into your mouth. Your mouth will definitely start to salivate. This too can keep your mouth from drying. Suck on a sugarless chewing gum and you'll begin to salivate also. Also you can take lemon juice, as it increases salivation.
It's important to brush your teeth after every meal. Remnants of food and plaque, normally gets washed away by saliva, but now with little saliva produced, you need to brush of the food before it starts creating tooth decay. The trapped food can also give you bad breath. Baking soda can be brushed on your teeth and your tongue to keep bad breath at bay.
Avoid salty foods as they can cause dehydration in the body, and that is not going to help you one bit.
If the dry mouth is persistent there may be some other underlying cause. To find the underlying cause you must consult a physician so that you can undergo blood tests and also measure your salivation rate. You can also get a scan of the salivary gland done, to see if there is any structural change to it. Other causes like medication must be looked into. Only the doctor can reduce the dosage of a drug whose side effect is a reduction of saliva.
Any surgery to the neck or head may impair the nerves supplying the salivary glands, and so they cannot produce any saliva. If this is the case, one of the home remedies for dry mouth that you can use is sipping water at frequent intervals to keep the mouth moist and comfortable.
