mouth dryness

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robinleigh
robinleigh Member Posts: 297
in Head and Neck Cancer #1
Andy is 5 months out from radiation and lots of things are better in regard to radiation side effects. Lately though, he has really been suffering with terribly dry mouth during the night and upon awakening.

We have a humidifier by his bed, he has Biotene spray by his bed, he's on Salogen, and of course, has water next to him always. I just ordered Stoppers 4 to see if it works better than the Biotene.

Any other suggestions? Anybody have luck with acupuncture for this?

Much appreciated for your input,
Robin
«1

Comments

  • Hal61
    Hal61 Member Posts: 655
    #2
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    Time (Chambers Bothers reference)
    Hi Robin, it sounds like you and your husband have covered all the bases. Stoppers 4 hopefull, will give some relief. I took salagen faithfully, and never felt a result. An ENT said don't take salagen. He didn't elaborate. My rad onc had prescribled it. I was over a year out when I started getting saliva back, and when I did, it changed fairly damatically in a couple of weeks. At over a year and a half out of treatment, production is still not up to pre treatment dayus, but it's not totally dry, and just having some is a big plus. Tell your guy to hang it, the majority of people to regain some or all of their saliva.

    best, Hal
  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #3
    Options
    Saliva - Dry at Night
    Sounds like your are doing well,and as mentioned, pretty much covering the bases...

    I'm 2 1/2 years out and even though I have regained around 95% of both taste and saliva...the 5% of saliva I'm missing is all at night during sleep.

    I still wake up with an extremely dry throat and mouth. I've learned to live with it, but ya it would be better if I didn't have it.

    Best,
    John
  • pmj2011
    pmj2011 Member Posts: 25
    #4
    Options
    Hi Robin
    Hi Robin....I am 9 months out of treatment and the dry mouth is getting a little better. I have gone to acupunture several times post treatment and have had alot of sucess with it. I was a big fan of acupunture before C and find it beneficial for overall well being and energy. So yes I would recommend it highly. I find that by chewing sugarless gum also helps and of course lots of water. Good luck and keep the faith- It does get better but it's a slow process....Paul
  • fisrpotpe
    fisrpotpe Member Posts: 1,349 Member
    #5
    Options
    Doing Well
    Sounds like Andy is doing well and you have everything in line to fight the dryness. FYI, now 15 years post radiation with the old radiation machine being my downfall I continue to have the extreme dry mouth when I sleep.

    A couple things that I did might work.

    Clean teeth well at bed time. I have found using using warm or room temp water help when cleaning and sipping at bed time.

    Because of warm water working at bed time I try and now I use very warm water and tried in in my waterpic, that made a huge difference.

    another i used for the first 2 years post treatment would be sugar free hard candy, ( the only one that worked for me was butter scotch). make sure when he gets up that cleaning teeth is so very important. I would do this even before having breakfast and then to clean again after breakfast.

    Stoppers4 i found 7-8 years post treatment by accident. It has been my blessing and i have it in many bottle around the house and vehicles. It is the only thing I use now other than warm water and very warm water in waterpic.

    also, I do not drink ice drinks, room temp water helps dryness for me much better.

    Good luck
    John
  • razorboy70
    razorboy70 Member Posts: 4
    #6
    Options
    dry mouth
    I had acupuncture during radiation and it seemed to help alot. I'm prety much back to normal or as close to normal as I can be. I'm a believer in acupuncture..
  • longtermsurvivor
    longtermsurvivor Member Posts: 1,842 Member
    #7
    Options
    dumb question
    Does he snore?
  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #8
    Options
    Hi Robin

    I been radiated twice to the same area and believe I am pretty lucky in that the only thing I do at night is use the Stoppers 4. As times goes on and his body heals more the problem with dry mouth should get a lot better


    Take care
    ╠╣ONDO
  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #9
    Options
    razorboy70 said:

    dry mouth
    I had acupuncture during radiation and it seemed to help alot. I'm prety much back to normal or as close to normal as I can be. I'm a believer in acupuncture..

    Hi razorboy

    I am doing acupuncture in hopes to easy up the pain in the face and open the jaw a little more. I had to stop because of an ear infection I got that never clear-up. But hoping to get back to doing more acupuncture very soon.

    PS: Welcome to CSN my friend

    Take care
    ╠╣ONDO
  • Greend
    Greend Member Posts: 678
    #10
    Options
    My case
    For several months following treatments (1996) cotton mouth would wake me up several times a night. I kept a glass of warm water by the bed and would take a sip and then try and go back to sleep. This caused two problems, 1) at some point early in the morning, usually around 2:00 am, I would be wide awake and unable to go back to sleep and 2) drinking all of that water caused me to go to the bathroom several times a night compounding problem #1. My doctor finally prescribed Lunesta and that did allow me to fall asleep and return to sleep after getting up and then to wake up without the "hangover" other sleeping aids caused. After a while I got used to the dry mouth and it no longer wakes me up at night. I agree totally that dental care (waterpic, brushing etc) is critical however I don't know how some are able to eat sugar free or any other kind of candy. If I put candy in my mouth, in three days it will still be there and almost the same size.

    Andy will adjust to dry mouth over time.

    Denny
  • Greend
    Greend Member Posts: 678
    #11
    Options
    Hondo said:

    Hi razorboy

    I am doing acupuncture in hopes to easy up the pain in the face and open the jaw a little more. I had to stop because of an ear infection I got that never clear-up. But hoping to get back to doing more acupuncture very soon.

    PS: Welcome to CSN my friend

    Take care
    ╠╣ONDO

    Acupuncture
    Hondo,

    Was it helping the pain in the face?
  • fisrpotpe
    fisrpotpe Member Posts: 1,349 Member
    #12
    Options
    Greend said:

    My case
    For several months following treatments (1996) cotton mouth would wake me up several times a night. I kept a glass of warm water by the bed and would take a sip and then try and go back to sleep. This caused two problems, 1) at some point early in the morning, usually around 2:00 am, I would be wide awake and unable to go back to sleep and 2) drinking all of that water caused me to go to the bathroom several times a night compounding problem #1. My doctor finally prescribed Lunesta and that did allow me to fall asleep and return to sleep after getting up and then to wake up without the "hangover" other sleeping aids caused. After a while I got used to the dry mouth and it no longer wakes me up at night. I agree totally that dental care (waterpic, brushing etc) is critical however I don't know how some are able to eat sugar free or any other kind of candy. If I put candy in my mouth, in three days it will still be there and almost the same size.

    Andy will adjust to dry mouth over time.

    Denny

    Agree
    I agree the hard candy would be there over many days. The key was splash a sip of water with the sugar free candy in mouth and suck on the candy trying to coat the mouth, this would help keep the mouth from drying out so fast and become bothersome.

    It will take time to adjust to dry mouth, for me I have weeks at a time at different times a year where it is worse or maybe even better.

    John
  • osmotar
    osmotar Member Posts: 1,006
    #13
    Options
    Xylitol
    My dentist recommended a sugarless gum called Spry it has xylitol in it to work with oral health which can be comprimised by dry mouth and lack of saliva. I found it at a local market called Sprouts, but it's made by a company called Xlear Inc.
  • sweetblood22
    sweetblood22 Member Posts: 3,228
    #14
    Options
    Robin
    I sure hope his saliva comes back. At best my mouth always feels like cotton mouth. At night, my tongue gets completely dry. I have to put a thick coating of biotène gel in there every hour. I even use it during the day. I am thinking this will probably as good as I get since I'm missing that left gland.
  • robinleigh
    robinleigh Member Posts: 297
    #15
    Options
    Hooray
    Hooray for Stoppers 4!!! Something Andy finally gets some relief from! Next question, where can I find it that the shipping cost isn't more than the actual product? Crazy!

    Thanks for the recommendations. Gonna try to get that Spry gum next but he has never really liked to chew gum so I don't know how it will go over.

    Also want to try the acupuncture but I need to find someone reputable. Our city is not known for much alternative health treatment...
  • CajunEagle
    CajunEagle Member Posts: 408
    #16
    Options
    fisrpotpe said:

    Doing Well
    Sounds like Andy is doing well and you have everything in line to fight the dryness. FYI, now 15 years post radiation with the old radiation machine being my downfall I continue to have the extreme dry mouth when I sleep.

    A couple things that I did might work.

    Clean teeth well at bed time. I have found using using warm or room temp water help when cleaning and sipping at bed time.

    Because of warm water working at bed time I try and now I use very warm water and tried in in my waterpic, that made a huge difference.

    another i used for the first 2 years post treatment would be sugar free hard candy, ( the only one that worked for me was butter scotch). make sure when he gets up that cleaning teeth is so very important. I would do this even before having breakfast and then to clean again after breakfast.

    Stoppers4 i found 7-8 years post treatment by accident. It has been my blessing and i have it in many bottle around the house and vehicles. It is the only thing I use now other than warm water and very warm water in waterpic.

    also, I do not drink ice drinks, room temp water helps dryness for me much better.

    Good luck
    John

    Ice Drinks
    Now that would really be a struggle for me to stop with Iced drinks. Since treatment stopped 2 1/2 years ago, I've gone nuts over iced coffee and iced tea. Just don't care about carbonated iced drinks any more. Think I'll give that room temperature coffee a try. I'm always up to trying something different.

    Larry
  • CajunEagle
    CajunEagle Member Posts: 408
    #17
    Options
    robinleigh said:

    Hooray
    Hooray for Stoppers 4!!! Something Andy finally gets some relief from! Next question, where can I find it that the shipping cost isn't more than the actual product? Crazy!

    Thanks for the recommendations. Gonna try to get that Spry gum next but he has never really liked to chew gum so I don't know how it will go over.

    Also want to try the acupuncture but I need to find someone reputable. Our city is not known for much alternative health treatment...

    Stoppers 4
    I can't find it on the shelf anywhere down here in the swamps, so I get it online at Drugstore.com. I guess I could ask my pharmacist to order it, and he is good at getting items that I use.

    Larry
  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #18
    Options
    CajunEagle said:

    Stoppers 4
    I can't find it on the shelf anywhere down here in the swamps, so I get it online at Drugstore.com. I guess I could ask my pharmacist to order it, and he is good at getting items that I use.

    Larry

    Local OTC
    Actually Larry, I don't think you can buy it OTC anywhere...internet only.

    JG
  • fisrpotpe
    fisrpotpe Member Posts: 1,349 Member
    #19
    Options
    CajunEagle said:

    Stoppers 4
    I can't find it on the shelf anywhere down here in the swamps, so I get it online at Drugstore.com. I guess I could ask my pharmacist to order it, and he is good at getting items that I use.

    Larry

    Online only
    I was so mad 2 years ago when they took it off the shelf at Walgreen's, I talked to the manager and he told me there is nothing he could do. I sent an email to Walgreen's and never heard back.

    I buy mine from JocottBrands www.jocottbrands.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=85&c

    Good luck!
    John
  • jtl
    jtl Member Posts: 456
    #20
    Options
    Skiffin16 said:

    Local OTC
    Actually Larry, I don't think you can buy it OTC anywhere...internet only.

    JG

    Stoppers
    Just ordered it from Drugstore.com with no charge for shipping or sales tax. It was $6.39 for the 4 oz size.
    John
  • Patti678
    Patti678 Member Posts: 55
    #21
    Options
    Thank you for this post.
    Thank you for this post. I've had the same issues with cottonmouth while sleeping since radiation treatment.

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