You wake up with a mouth so dry your tongue sticks to the roof of your mouth, and it happens again the next night. Dry mouth usually means your salivary glands aren’t making enough saliva, most often as a side effect of a medicine or because of a health condition, and it’s worth getting checked because saliva is your mouth’s main defense against tooth decay.
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What Dry Mouth Is, and What Saliva Does
Dry mouth, also called xerostomia, means not having enough saliva to keep your mouth wet. It isn’t a disease in itself: it’s a symptom of a health condition or a side effect of certain medicines.
Saliva does more than keep your mouth comfortable. It washes food away from your teeth and gums, neutralizes acids made by bacteria, carries minerals that help keep teeth strong, fights germs, and helps you chew, swallow, taste, and speak.
Everyone’s mouth gets dry once in a while, for example when you’re nervous. A mouth that’s dry all or most of the time is different. Other signs include a sticky feeling, thick or stringy saliva, a dry or sore throat, cracked lips, a dry or rough tongue, changes in taste, and trouble chewing, swallowing, or speaking.
Dry mouth is common, affecting about 1 in 5 people, and it’s more common in older adults, mostly because of medicines and health conditions. It isn’t considered a normal part of getting older.
What Causes Dry Mouth
Medicines are the most frequent cause, but health conditions, cancer treatment, and habits can all play a part:
| Cause | Examples |
|---|---|
| Medicines | Hundreds of prescription and over-the-counter medicines, including some for high blood pressure, depression, anxiety, allergies, congestion, pain, and bladder control. Taking several medicines raises the risk. |
| Health conditions | Sjögren’s disease (once called Sjögren’s syndrome), diabetes, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and stroke, among others |
| Cancer treatment | Radiation to the head and neck can damage the salivary glands for good. Cancer drugs can reduce saliva or make it thicker, usually for a time. |
| Nerve damage | An injury to the head or neck can damage the nerves that tell the salivary glands to make saliva |
| Dehydration | Losing more fluid than you take in. Older adults are more prone to it. |
| Habits | Tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, and a lot of caffeine can dry the mouth, and so can breathing through your mouth |
| Stress or anxiety | Many people get a dry mouth when they’re nervous, upset, or stressed |
Some people feel a dry mouth even when their salivary glands are working. After a stroke or with Alzheimer’s disease, for example, the mouth may not sense wetness as well.
If you think a medicine is drying your mouth, don’t stop taking it on your own. Talk to the doctor who prescribed it, who may be able to adjust the dose or switch you to another medicine.
Why Dry Mouth Is Often Worse at Night
Your mouth makes the least saliva while you sleep, and breathing through your mouth can make nighttime dryness worse.
Waking up with a dry mouth can also be a sign of sleep apnea. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute lists dry mouth among the symptoms you might notice yourself, along with loud, frequent snoring, gasping, and breathing that stops and starts during sleep. Some people who use a CPAP machine for sleep apnea also get a dry mouth, typically from cold, dry air.
Nighttime dryness matters for your teeth: Cleveland Clinic notes that dry mouth at night is more likely to cause cavities and other dental problems.
What Dry Mouth Can Be a Sign Of
Ongoing dry mouth can be a sign of a health condition, which is why finding the cause matters. Three worth knowing about:
- Diabetes. Dry mouth is a common symptom of high blood sugar, and sometimes the first one people notice.
- Sjögren’s disease. An autoimmune condition that reduces tears and saliva, so dry eyes often come with the dry mouth. Most people are over 50 when they’re diagnosed, and women are nine times more likely to have it than men.
- Sleep apnea. Dry mouth is one of its symptoms, as above.
A doctor diagnoses Sjögren’s disease using your medical history, an exam, and tests.
How Dry Mouth Affects Your Teeth and Gums
It raises your risk of cavities, gum disease, and mouth infections, because saliva normally keeps harmful germs in check.
Without enough saliva, acid-producing bacteria increase, which can lead to bad breath, cavities, gum disease, thrush (a yeast infection), and mouth sores. Cavities in a dry mouth often show up along the gumline and on the roots of the teeth, and they can progress faster. Dry mouth can also make dentures fit less well and rub, and it can make some foods harder to chew and swallow.
Everett, WA
Dry mouth that won’t go away?
A dental exam checks your teeth and gums for its effects.
How the Cause Is Found
Finding the cause starts with your health history and medicines, an exam of your mouth, and sometimes a test of your saliva or blood.
A dentist or doctor asks about your symptoms, your health conditions, and every medicine you take, and may suggest blood tests or a test that measures how much saliva you make. The saliva flow test is painless.
At a dental exam, your dentist looks for signs like a dry, textured tongue and inner cheeks and little saliva pooling under the tongue, and checks for cavities and gum disease. Dentists and hygienists can often spot dry mouth before the patient notices it. If a health condition could be the cause, your doctor may order more tests or refer you to a specialist, and your dentist and doctor often work together.
What Treatment Depends On
Treatment depends on the cause. If a medicine is behind it, the doctor who prescribed it may adjust the dose or switch you to another one. If a health condition is the cause, treating it may help: for dry mouth linked to diabetes, that means managing your blood sugar with your doctor. If your glands still make some saliva, a doctor or dentist may prescribe a medicine that helps them work better.
Where the cause can’t be changed, such as after radiation to the head and neck, care focuses on comfort and on protecting your teeth, and your dentist may suggest more frequent checkups and extra fluoride. Drinking more water doesn’t fix dry mouth when the glands aren’t making enough saliva. Some cases go away completely, and in others the symptoms can be managed.
In the meantime, ask your dentist or doctor about ways to ease the dryness.
Mouth dry most of the time? Call our Everett dental office to book an exam.
When to Get It Checked
If your mouth is dry most of the time, see your dentist or doctor to find out why. Get it checked if you have:
- dry mouth that doesn’t go away
- trouble swallowing
- a burning feeling in your mouth
- white patches in your mouth
- sores, pain, swelling, or bleeding gums
- snoring that disrupts your sleep or comes with daytime tiredness, headaches, or gasping, which a doctor can test for sleep apnea
Getting Dry Mouth Checked in Everett
At Icon Dental Center, our general dentists, Dr. Aboulhosn, Dr. Valentine, and Dr. Kwok, can check for signs of dry mouth and its effects on your teeth and gums at a routine exam. If dry mouth has led to cavities, they can treat them with fillings, and our periodontist, Dr. Betsy Mosquera, provides gum disease treatment.
Common Questions About Dry Mouth
Can anxiety cause dry mouth?
It can. Many people get a dry mouth when they’re nervous, upset, or stressed, and MedlinePlus lists stress and anxiety among its causes. Some medicines for anxiety and depression can cause dry mouth too. If it doesn’t go away, have it checked.
Is dry mouth a sign of diabetes?
It can be. Dry mouth is a common symptom of high blood sugar, and it’s sometimes the first one people notice. Diabetes and some diabetes medicines can also make the salivary glands produce less saliva. If you have dry mouth and think you could have diabetes, talk to your doctor.
Does dry mouth cause cavities?
It raises the risk. Saliva washes away food and neutralizes acids, so without enough of it, cavities form more easily, including along the gumline and on the roots of the teeth, and they can progress faster.