Nursing home dental services deal with a lot of diseases such as salivary gland hypofunction, xerostomia, and more. Some of these conditions can cause dry mouth among the elderly. Dry mouth has various treatment options that dentists can use.
Mouth moisteners
Mouth moisteners in the form of artificial saliva and salivary substitutes are available as aerosols, rinses, mouthwashes, toothpaste, chewing gums, lozenges and so on. The principle idea of these substitutes is to provide a long-lasting coat to protect the soft tissue. However, liquids, sprays or gels may need to be applied throughout the day – at least three to four times a day depending on their lasting abilities and/or their adherences.
Pastilles or lozenges may also provide a more socially acceptable and discreet means of adding moisture to the mouth because their usage may be better hidden. However, you need to be aware of hidden sugars in some of these products.
The currently available preparation to moisten dry mouth contain either micins or carboxymethylcellulose although hydroxyethylcellulose-based preparation, olive oil, glycerol, canola oil and linseed extra are reported to be useful. Sugar-free chewing gums can be used by patients during their waking hours. Chewing gums can stimulate salivary production.
There is no tangible evidence that chewing gum is worse or better than saliva substitutes because gums are only effective if there is remaining salivary function tissue. However, chewing gums can cause problems for older adults, especially people who have arthritis or wear removable appliances.
Toothpaste as treatment
Mobile dental services can also provide special toothpaste as a treatment for dry mouth. Toothpaste designed for the treatment of this condition may improve the symptoms of the condition but doesn’t improve the function of the salivary gland. A lot of people with dry mouth prefer using non-foaming gel toothpaste that is less irritating.
Since the reduced flow of saliva can have negative effects on your dentition, caries prevention and management plays an important role in maintaining dentition for people with dry mouth. Regular checkups by a qualified dentist and a meticulous oral hygiene regimen should also be encouraged. Both home used topical fluorides and professionally applied varnish have been recommended to be effective in preventing caries in older adults.
Topical
While some topical agents seem to cause a lessening of symptoms of dry mouth, hence improving the quality of life, there is no scientific evidence that topical treatment is effective for relieving dry mouth sensation and recent literature shows that no one topical agent has ever been found to be better than others.
The preference of patients plays an important role in the attribution of efficacy. The makeup of salivary substitutes and lubricants doesn’t duplicate the compounds found in the saliva and this means that it lacks protective effects, although some of them contain electrolytes and fluoride to prevent demineralization.
Prescription medication
Your nursing home dental services may provide prescription medication for dry mouth. If topical therapy cannot provide relief of symptoms related to dry mouth, prescription-strength systemic medicine may be used.