Ogden Dentist Video #10:
What is a Dry Mouth?
In this video, Dr. Jim Ellis, DDS (a dentist in Ogden, Utah) explains what a dry mouth means.
It is very, very important that your mouth be moist, just like your eyes. If you could imagine keeping your eyes wide open and going for a run for five or ten minutes without blinking and having the wind come into your eyes, your eyes would be very painful, very red, very irritated. It wouldn’t be a happy situation. The same is true for your mouth. Your mouth has to be moist for it to be comfortable, for the teeth, for the tongue, for everything to function properly. If your mouth dries out, your teeth are very prone to decay.
Dry mouth happens most often in the elderly. Two reasons for that are:
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Our salivary flow decreases as we increase in age. Everything kind of starts to shut down, eyes get more dry and so does the mouth. It’s very important that, as we get older, we monitor that.
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Also, with medications, and that’s another reason why the elderly suffer more from dry mouth, medications have a lot side effects, and a lot of the side effects with some of the heart medications is a reduction in salivary flow.
If you find that your mouth is drying out there are actually medications to counteract that, both things that tooth paste, mouthwash, but also oral things you can take to counteract the dry mouth. But, it is very, very crucial that you keep your mouth moist at all times.
Hopefully, this video has answered your question. If you have any other questions, we have a whole library of videos. If there is something that you have that hasn’t been answered, you can feel free to give me a call at (801) 783-3490. Thank you so much and have a good day.
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4QfEaGGTPI
