“I can't spit, my mouth is so dry,” was the complaint of a fifty-six-year-old man. He told us he had had a dry mouth for the past few months. As an executive in a large corporation he had noted difficulty in speaking, as his tongue and lips were very dry. His dentist was concerned about the appearance of caries, and food had little taste. There was none of the normal salivation upon seeing, smelling, or tasting his favorite foods. Dry food was hard to swallow. He was often at the drinking fountain and was frequently sucking on lozenges, to little avail. Even sourballs, which increase salivary flow to twenty times normal, gave only temporary relief.

All this confirmed the diagnosis of xerostomia, or dry mouth. Normally, he should be secreting over a quart of saliva every day, mostly during the daytime. However, we estimated he was putting out barely a tablespoonful. It is saliva that enables smooth tongue movements and lip motion, important in enunciation. It is also saliva that aids in the tasting and swallowing of dry foods. And it is saliva which flushes and degerms the teeth, preventing caries. Saliva contains the same germicidal lysozyme found in tears to protect the eye, as well as antibodies and other antibacterial chemicals.

But why did this man have a dry mouth? It was not the dry mouth of the fearful public speaker, which passes once the person is off stage.