Re: How anxiety causes dry mouth

This is interesting. I have come to the conclusion that I might have Sjorgen's syndrome because I do have a dry mouth and have a lot of problems wearing contact lenses. I also have hashimoto's thyroiditis and Reynaud's phenomenon, which are all associated with Sjorgen's syndrome. However, if I don't have Sjorgen's then I think I have dry mouth caused by anxiety.

I looked up some research articles on Sjorgen's and apparently a lot of people diagnosed with this disorder develop Exfoliative Chelitis see "Oral mucosal manifestations in primary and secondary Sjorgen's Syndrome and dry Mouth Syndrome". I'm not sure why the research articles on Exfoliative Chelitis don't mention this more. The research articles on EC I have come across are generally obsessed with the factitious damage hypothesis but not everyone with EC picks or licks their lips. And it seems that many people with EC who used to pick and licked their lips ceased doing so a long time ago and yet they still have EC. So that can't be the only causative factor.

Anyway, what the research on EC and Sjorgen's syndrome proves is that there is association between EC and dry mouth.

This could be connected with the recessed lower jaw Orthodontics thing I mentioned in another post. Why? Because if your "lip seal" isn't good then more air gets in contact with your mucosa at the opening of your mouth.

I wonder if the saliva stimulant medication prescribed for Sjorgen's will help EC? Has anyoe tried this? Tweet