Reduced saliva

Xylimelts work only if you have a little saliva. They help me at night time so I don’t have to wake for sips of water. 
Chewing gum gets my saliva going and at the suggestion of others here I have learned to park a piece under my cheek and chew just now and again rather than chewing all the time. Sensodyne pronamel mouthwash also gets my saliva going so I use that after brushing ( I can’t use Duraphat so flushing the toothpaste away with a fluoride wash is neither here nor there).

On a more exciting note I have just started acupuncture. It took me a while To find a practitioner who knew a protocol especially for this. I have had only one session so watch this space. Before she had taken the needles out my nose started to run and by the time I had walked to the car I had a mouthful of saliva that kept coming. This lasted a couple of hours but I am hopeful we can build on this. 
Be aware that you can expect improvements up to and past two years so don’t get disheartened. 

Hi I am now 16 month post radiotherapy, ive had 6 acupuncture sessions and I really must agree with Beeesuit i do think  they've  helped immensely I’ve stopped them now for a while to see what happens l As an indicator I can now eat a packet of walkers plain crisps !!!Result!!!!!.ok I have had to,pay for the sessions but what price is saliva ! 

As Beesuit says when we get to the 2 year mark they say what we’ve got is what we’ve got at that stage, but recent news from America is they are  saying 3 years so I will take the extra year to see what improves. 

Sugarvfree chewing gum is a must but xylitol first on list if ingredients as opposed to  sorbitol is better 

Keep on trying 

Hazelx

Hi

Thanks for the replys .

I'm still very early days and it drives me nuts during the day at night I'm ok

Constantly drinking water  I've used the melts and pastilles  gp gave me oral gel the only thing I find helpful is soda bicarbonate mouthwash but if you're out it's a pain. 

So when can you start acupuncture .

Start looking now. A decent practitioner will guide you as to when treatment can begin.I guess salivary glands have to heal a little and perhaps it’s a good idea to get cracking before significant irreversible fibrosis sets in?  My oncologist is pretty interested in how I progress. Of course it’s difficult to know whether the improvement would have occurred anyway except in my case I did have a rush of saliva. 

Make sure your gel has a neutral ph

I didn’t like sipping water as I found it washed away the little saliva I had. I used AS Saliva Orthana on script. 

Hi...I'm 4 1/2 yrs post radiotherapy,my saliva is still at about 80% and I would say its STILL improving and I would say the best improvement was from year 1.5 to 2 onwards so dont lose heart.I found during the day sucking SUGAR FREE sweets  sula,ricola or werthers and most supermarkets sell their own make now in "cigarette type" boxes...Also, I found GLANDOSANE synthetic saliva spray quite good (its on prescription) and good to give a quick spray in the night if you wake up..I to always found that sipping water just washed away what little saliva I had in there away ...As I say dont lose heart ...its a slow slow process but it will improve.....mike

Have you tried Biotene products? They have a mouth spray and mouthwash that both work well.

My oncologist warned me off Biotene spray. 
All the biotene products have a pH around 6 and being acid cause tooth erosion. 

Thankyou for the reply I managed to get a spray from my cns which helps a little .

I tried sugar free sweets which are not bad. 

I can't eat anything with sugar which is annoying because I was a big sweet tooth . Now  I can't get anything with sugar or my mouth is agony hopefully its only temporary 

I haven't tried much products except salivix pastilles and I have to confess I tend to use probably too much of the difflam spray and brush my teeth numerous times in a day then the difflam mouthwash but this works for me when I'm in the house. 

When I'm out is when I struggle and drink a lot of water which works initially then my mouth is even more drier than before