Products for dry mouth

I mentioned to the dental hygienist that I’m taking a medication that causes dry mouth. You may know that a dry mouth can lead to tooth decay, so it is a concern.

She gave me some information and samples of a couple of products that are available in the US:

  1. XyliMelts and XyliGel: She said that the XyliMelts lozenges are good to use at nighttime. She said they are little discs that sort of adhere to the gums. So you put one in your mouth, on the gums, when you go to bed and it helps to keep your mouth lubricated during the night.

  2. Spry gum and mints: These aren’t specifically for dry mouth but both mints and gum help with dry mouth during the day. The advantage of these is that they are sweetened with Xylitol, which is a natural sweetener that has been shown to help reduce tooth decay.

  3. ACT dry mouth products: Looks like they have a spray and lozenges (which I think are only for use during the day, not the nighttime discs like Xylimint).

Be careful with xylitol. It’s a sugar alcohol used as a sweetener. In not too high doses, it has another use - as a laxative. Given a bunch of us are on high dose magnesium and that IBS is frequently comorbid with migraine, that could be an issue.

Ahh, good to know. Thank you!

Amitriptyline did this to me but the effect wore off after a few months and it seems the body eventually compensates and dry mouth was no longer an issue.

I’m hoping that will be the case for me, too!

I also have sjogrens syndrome so am very familiar with dry everything!! I have found biotene gel and mouthwash a lifesaver which stops my teeth sticking to my cheeks and my tongue from sticking to the roof of my mouth, lovely

i get very dry mouth at night sometimes (but only sometimes). but it can be really dry, like my tongue has gone hard like a piece of dry old bread. it sounds trite, but i have found water helps. not necessarily drinking it, but just putting some water in my mouth and sloshing it around. seems to kick start the saliva etc.

“Oral 7” Toothpaste completely cured two separate cases I had of terribly dry mouth (from Amitriptyline and Flunarizine).

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