Month: December 2020

Dry Mouth – Cause, Prevention and Treatment

What is XEROSTOMIA ?

Xerostomia is defined as dry-mouth and is often associated with hypofunction of the salivary glands resulting from reduced or absent saliva flow.  It may happen due to various medical conditions, a side effect of a wide variety of medications or a side effect of Cancer treatment – radiotherapy to the head and neck can damage the salivary glands, resulting in less saliva being produced.

Saliva And Its Importance..

Saliva contributes to the digestion of food and to the maintenance of oral hygiene. Without normal salivary function the frequency of dental caries, gum disease (gingivitis and periodontitis), and other oral problems increases significantly.

Lubricant

Saliva coats the oral mucosa, mechanically protecting it from trauma during eating, swallowing and speaking. In people with little saliva (xerostomia), soreness of the mouth is very common, and the food (especially dry food) sticks to the inside of the mouth.

Digestion

The digestive functions of saliva include moistening food and helping to create a food bolus. This lubricative function of saliva allows the food bolus to be passed easily from the mouth into the esophagus. Saliva contains the enzyme amylase, also called ptyalin, which is capable of breaking down starch into simpler sugars such as maltose and dextrin that can be further broken down in the small intestine. Only about 30% starch digestion takes place in the mouth cavity. Salivary glands also secrete salivary lipase to begin digestion. Salivary lipase plays a large role in digestion.

Role in taste

Saliva is very important in the sense of taste. It is the liquid medium in which chemicals are carried to taste receptor cells (mostly associated with lingual papillae). Persons with little saliva often complain of dysgeusia (i.e. disordered taste, e.g. reduced ability to taste, or having a bad, metallic taste at all times).

Other Roles

  • Saliva maintains the pH of the mouth. Saliva is supersaturated with various ions. Certain salivary proteins prevent precipitation, which would form salts. These ions act as a buffer, keeping the acidity of the mouth within a certain range, typically pH 6.2–7.4. This prevents minerals in the dental hard tissues from dissolving.
  • Saliva secretes carbonic anhydrase (gustin), which is thought to play a role in the development of taste buds.

A common belief is that saliva contained in the mouth has natural disinfectants. Researchers have discovered that human saliva contains some antibacterial agents as secretory IgA, lactoferrin, lysozyme and peroxidase which helps in cleaning the wound by removing larger contaminants such as dirt and may help to directly remove infective bodies.

Saliva contains EGF. EGF results in cellular proliferation, differentiation, and survival. EGF is a low-molecular-weight polypeptide first purified from the mouse submandibular gland, but since then found in many human tissues including submandibular gland, parotid gland. Salivary EGF, which seems also regulated by dietary inorganic iodine, also plays an important physiological role in the maintenance of oro-esophageal and gastric tissue integrity. The biological effects of salivary EGF include healing of oral and gastroesophageal ulcers, inhibition of gastric acid secretion, stimulation of DNA synthesis as well as mucosal protection from intraluminal injurious factors such as gastric acid, bile acids, pepsin, and trypsin and to physical, chemical and bacterial agents.

Other Ways To Overcome Dry Mouth:

  • Limit your caffeine intake because caffeine can make your mouth drier.
  • Don’t use mouthwashes that contain alcohol because they can be drying.
  • Stop all tobacco use if you smoke or chew tobacco.
  • Sip water regularly.
  • Avoid using over-the-counter antihistamines and decongestants because they can make your symptoms worse.
  • Breathe through your nose, not your mouth.
  • Avoid sugary or acidic foods and drinks because they increase your risk of tooth decay.
  • Brush with a fluoride toothpaste — ask your dentist if you might benefit from prescription fluoride toothpaste.
  • Use a fluoride rinse or brush-on fluoride gel before bedtime. Occasionally a custom-fit fluoride applicator (made by your dentist) can make this more effective.
  • Tab Xylitol. Xylitol helps in secretion of saliva through taste buds when secretion is impaired but when functioning gland tissues are still present. XYLITOL is recommended as a sugar substitute and is claimed not only to be non-cariogenic, but also to exhibit an anti-caries effect due to its bacteriostatic effect.

ICanCaRe Tobacco Wellness Program incorporates all the above in the digitalized protocol based intervention program by a team of experts who work with you intensively to prevent dry mouth while quitting tobacco.

ICanCaRe team of Certified tobacco Cessation Specialists and Quit Coaches work with you to make your journey smooth, easy, interesting and achievable.

ICanCaRe Tobacco Wellness Centres with its India’s first digital protocol based assessment process guide intervention as per requirements.

Do visit the ICanCaRe Tobacco Wellness Centres or register online by visiting our page or call ICanCaRe quit line 011-430-77695.

ICanCaRe 7D Intervention to Quit Tobacco

7Ds of Quitting Tobacco

Ready to Quit tobacco? Tobacco Cessation is a bumpy ride for the users who want to quit tobacco. One needs to be well equipped and prepare themselves for the withdrawal symptoms, which is manageable if you do it with full consciousness as it makes the journey easy and interesting.

Withdrawal symptoms can be present in various ways – it can vary from mild to intense. It may be in the form of physical discomfort, that may look like an illness or it can be just feeling of depression, sadness and continuous thoughts and urges of tobacco. Tobacco has been your companion and has taken over your life for many years and now you need to break apart from this habit. Managing the discomforts that comes early on can make you win over tobacco for a life time. It is better to manage with a tailored plan to keep yourself on track.

The 7Ds of Tobacco Cessation

Most of the urges can be controlled by this ICanCaRe Seven Ds which I am going to describe. You can find more details on other blogs.

Understand these seven Ds and memorize them and respond to your cravings or urges in a healthy way. Believe me these Seven Ds are the mantras of tobacco Cessation.

The Seven Ds are

    1. Drink Water
    2. Deep Breathing Exercise
    3. Delay
    4. Distract
    5. Diet
    6. Discuss
    7. Drug

1.Drink Water

Proper hydration is most important during tobacco cessation.  Dryness of the mouth is a fairly common for all as part of withdrawal symptoms. During cravings just take 2 glasses of water/juice etc, surprisingly enough the cravings disappear. You feel at ease both physically and mentally. It also helps flush toxins from your body.

2.Deep Breathing Exercise

This quickly takes care of the stress, irritability and sleeplessness that comes with tobacco cessation both smoking and chewing. Follow the instruction given below:

  • Close your eyes, keep your back straight, palms to the front and deep breath.
  • Long inhale slowly fill your lungs with air, hold for 2 seconds.
  • Exhale slowly and completely, hold for 2 seconds.
  • Repeat this for 10 times. Be mindful of your breath. You will feel the calmness and relaxation.

Managing stress is the most critical thing to do during the quit journey. Mostly people use tobacco to relieve stress and sometimes quitting itself creates stress of its own. Stress causes strong urges to smoke or chew tobacco. DBE helps to destress on the spot and is a simple doable way to attain that.

3.Delay

Delay till the urges pass away. Cravings are difficult, but they usually pass fairly quickly.

Most urges last only for 3-5 minutes!

When you first quit, it may seem the craving is unending lasting for the full day, but the truth is that the urges are really short in duration. They are more during the initial few days of stopping tobacco, but with practice to learn to deal with them rather than tobacco, they will fade away.

4.Distract

Distract yourself! Think of anything but tobacco. You can do many things during these 5 minutes. But remember to avoid triggers do something different than what you did before. You can do yoga, exercise, cook, solve a puzzle etc. Distraction breaks the continuous thought process which would pull you back into tobacco. Controlling the mind and action to keep the thoughts at bay is important move ahead.

5.Discuss

Discuss with your buddy or with your quit coach. This will relieve you. Self-appreciate your resolve to quit, discuss and surely you can tide over the urges.

6.DIET

Indian tobacco use consists of chewing or smoking. There is tendency to have something in the mouth or in between the lips and fingers. Further there may be increase in appetite when one quits tobacco. Be careful to choose healthy alternatives – salad, peanuts, sprouts and so many. But please avoid fat and carbs, which would lead to increase in weight. As an alternate to chewing, I usually suggest roasted chia seeds.

7.Drug

In India tobacco use is associated with many of our routine. One of the most common is bowel movements. Some use tobacco for dental pain, some smoke to suppress cough. These have to be addressed and taken care either by some home remedies, maintaining hydration or it may require certain medications. Addressing these issues with understanding and scientific approach with reasoning will help control a majority of craving and withdrawal symptoms.

A good quit plan addresses both the short-term challenge of stopping use of tobacco and the long-term challenge of preventing relapse.

Planning for what you expect while quitting and re-planning as you move ahead in your journey will make you achieve your goals. The ICanCaRe Tobacco Wellness specialists and Quit Coach hand hold you during your journey, intervene and guide as required. The program is available online and you can connect with us through our app (https://app.icancare.in) or contact 011-430-77695 or visit https://www.icancare.in/quittobacco.

The above seven Ds are the mantras for smoking cessation. They help in most cases but need to be complemented by specific medicine, nicotine receptor agonist meant to control the withdrawal and reward phenomenon of tobacco. The bottom-line is that it is possible to quit and specialized help is available – earlier you quit better for you.