Dry mouth...need help asap

[Nomad]

I?ve had Sjs for a good ten years. Dry mouth has always been mild. Using Biotene toothpaste and occassional Biotene mouthwash did the trick. The pandemic etc brought depression. The doctor prescribed Wellbutrin. My mouth got so dry, I developed cuts all over and was miserable. Stopped the Wellbutrin. Felt ok. Then I got ibs. Sigh. I?m in some sort of weird very bad cycle. Got a lower dose of Wellbutrin... not extended release. Got Hyscyomine...relatively low dose. Dry mouth is back something wicked. Cuts too. This very bad dry mouth is new to me. I?m miserable.

I?m thinking of stopping the Wellbutrin temporarily.

But the hyscyamine for IBS is also causing dry mouth.

The otc counter stuff I bought is useless. I have the xylemelts coming in today via Amazon.

Is it possible to use the prescription that causes more saliva (starts with a ?p??) temporarily? Just while on these scripts that cause dry mouth? Or will using them cause my glands to reduce secretions on their own?

What otc products have been of help? Does coffee drinking make it worse?

Thank you.

[meirish]

I would ask for a different antidepressant if you can take them. They will all cause dryness but some are not as bad as others and everyone reacts differently to them. the med for your ibs is really going to dry you out.

I have had ins along with other stuff involving the colon and I am taking probiotics cause that does help with the ins. In USA our bowels are so out of whack because of our diet and taking antibiotics. Check with your doctor about this. Another thing you can take that really helps is the OTC Benefiber. It helps with the probiotic angle and it helps slow the loose stools. My GI doc approves of it but you do need to check about all this stuff. You are miserable now so go for an alternative.

Try just sucking on sugar free candy for short term help. I have had dry mouth since back in the 60's and have been sucking on all kinds of things. I didn't get diagnosed with Sjogrens until 2003 so I sort of had to figure things out for myself that helped. Actually, I can tolerate the sugar free cough drops better than the sugar free candy. Others should give suggestions. Right now my mind is blank for other ideas. Good luck. meirish

My GI doc ordered Choleststyramine (Questran) for my terrible IBS and other issues that I had. This is a very old drug that I used powdered mixed with whatever works. Apple juice is good. This drug is an old treatment for high cholesterol and it takes the fat out of diet and excretes in stool. It also helps with the bile digestion. I had a horrible time with the bile... I could almost feel it being dumped into my colon and immediately would have loose watery stools. Sorry this is graphic. I could only take 1/2 pack at time as it made me constipated. Which was welcome at times.

Also, I thought of this later and had to come back. The colon produces a lot of the serotonin for the body so improving the colon can improve our depression. The colon also has about 80% of the immune tissue such as lymph nodes etc so a health colon will also help us with our health status. This makes sense now because the medical field always encourages probiotics.

I found my colon felt much better when I take the Benefiber plus I try to take a probiotic pill a few times a week. The sugar we eat plus all the other crazy things in our diet affects the microbiome as they call it. With all the things that can drag our health down now it pays to work on the healthy things for our colon. Doing some searches online will help you find out more info.

[Kathy57]

Nomad,

So sorry to hear about your dry mouth symptoms.  It can be so absolutely miserable!  My mouth is dry all the time no matter what my meds.  I would ask your Dr about Pilocarpine or Evoxac.  I use Evoxac and I take the maximum dose three times daily.  I feel it has saved the quality of my life.  It is one of the most important meds that I take.

I started out on Pilocarpine maximum dose four times daily, but it just wasn?t strong enough for me. I think Evoxac is more expensive but my insurance will pay for either - at least for right now.  You might want to start out on Pilocarpine and see what it does.  You may not even have to take the full amount.  Some people get by on twice per day, and I am jealous of them.

It?s awful to get sores and cuts in your mouth.  Also, be careful that you don?t develop Thrush.  A really dry mouth can predispose you to that.

I hope you feel better soon.  Let us know how you are doing.

Kathy

[araminta]

Sorry you are having this problem,Nomad.   The Xylimelts will be very helpful.

I always have a piece of sugarfree chewing gum in my mouth, you don't need to be chewing at it all the time, it still helps.

Anything which is diuretic might make your mouth dryer, and coffee and tea have a diuretic effect.   Maybe not drink so much?   Or drink plenty of plain water as well.

I hope you get some good help.

[sixty]

Hi Nomad:  So sorry about your dry mouth and other stuff.  I have IBS at times due to constipation from what I can tell.  I take opioids for pain and they can constipate.  I don't know what causes yours but whenever I feel the pain coming on I take magnesium tablets and the pain is gone after about 20 minutes.  It really helps me with it.  I also just take 1000 mg. of it daily for maintenance of constipation.  I hope you can try it and it helps you.
I would agree  that coffee can contribute to drying you out.  It does that to me.  I'm constantly drinking water all day.

 I feel for you having cuts in your mouth.  It must be so painful & I wish I could help you with that.  I can't even brush my teeth with toothpaste anymore without having  so much stinging and sensitivity.   My breath is horrible and so I must chew gum out in public to try to avoid offending everyone.  This disease is awful and it's also hard to talk about to the people that don't have it.

[meirish]

Just want to remind people to always let your doc know that you are taking magnesium even if for laxative. magnesium can affect the muscles in your body and your heart is a muscle. Often the doc will want to do periodic magnesium blood levels. meirish

[sixty]

Thank you Irish.  Last time my Dr. did the blood work my magnesium was fine, but it sure can affect other things.