• Mohammed Alsakran Altamimi.
• Department of restorative dental sciences, Al-Farabi College of dentistry and nursing, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
• Afr Health Sci. 2014 Sep 1; 14 (3): 736-42.

BackgroundDry mouth is usually caused by a reduced salivary flow or by changes in the biochemical composition of saliva.ObjectiveThe aim of this paper is a review of the update literature of dry mouth.MethodsWe search in pubmed in the past 10 years using the words «dry mouth», «causes», «symptoms», «treatment» and «dentistry». A large number of papers have been identified. Papers not relevant to the issue were removed reducing the entries to 56 only.ResultsThere are no clearly established protocols for the treatment of dry mouth in the literature. Most of identified papers were systematic reviews, non-systematic reviews, and observational studies. The most studied patients were Sjögren's syndrome and the irradiated patients. Treatments are focused on the etiology, prevention, symptomatic, local salivary stimulation and systemic treatments.ConclusionIt can be concluded that there is no clear evidence for the causes and treatment of dry mouth, therefore the majority of the general dental practitioners refer most of the cases to appropriate specialist. Treatment must be individualized, salivary substitutes and mechanical stimulation techniques can be applied.

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