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Dry Mouth during Cancer Treatment

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Last Modified: June 8, 2012

Question

I have such dry mouth. What can you recommend to help me with this? Sometimes it is so hard just to chew my food and get it down.

Answer

Patricia Dooley, Associate Director of the Division of Speech Language Pathology at Penn Medicine, responds:

There are many different things that you can do to relieve dry mouth. One way is by using over the counter artificial saliva replacements such as Biotene Oral Balance or spray, mouthwash and toothpaste, Stoppers 4 Dry Mouth, or MouthKote. Drinking water or/ using a spray bottle with water can also be helpful. To assist with chewing, eating a moist wet diet is helpful. I would also recommend drinking a liquid between bites to help wash food down.

This question and answer was part of the OncoLink Brown Bag Chat Series. View the entire Head and Neck Cancer Q&A Webchat transcript.