Cost of dry mouth

If your dry mouth is severe enough, there are a number of tests your doctor or dentist may recommend. Though they aren’t that painful for your mouth, they may cause some severe discomfort for your wallet.

Your doctor or dentist will first need to obtain specifics of the complaint of dry mouth in order to diagnose it. At this point they may physically examine the salivary glands by palpating them for the presence of tenderness, firmness, or enlargement. The first test in most cases it to measure the salivary flow rate, or the amount of saliva produced during a specific amount of time. The next option is called salivary gland scintigraphy. This is a test performed at a hospital which measures the rate at which an injected radioactive material is taken from the blood by the salivary glands and secreted in the mouth. Your doctor may also need to take a biopsy of the saliva glands for examination as well. After all this, the end result is often just prescription drugs that come with their own side effects, and do not help prevent tooth decay.