Yet another side of Samters?

[Guest guest]

After a visit to my Immunologist he asked me to have a

particular x-ray carried out “salivary scintigraphy” as he said my

mouth was extremely dry and also tear ducts appeared that way. End result

is that I now have what is called ‘Sicca Syndrome’ because of the

Samters.

“The overall findings are consistent with established

early salivary gland dysfunction” according to the report.

Another big downside of this is that the teeth and gums are

deprived of the protective effect of normal salivary flow and dental hygiene is

of the utmost importance with six monthly visits to a doctor to prevent loss of

teeth. I already have a bridge and this has been put down to this Sicca

Syndrome that I’ve had for many years and not even been aware of. I’ve

always been particular with my dental hygiene but I guess that wasn’t

enough but now explains why my teeth are starting to ‘crumble’ to a

degree.

There are various products available such as Aquae Dry Mouth

Gel and artificial tears along with using saline nasal sprays. It’s

also been recommended that I chew sugar free gum or suck on sugar free sweets

to promote saliva. If a cough starts up I should use a nebulised saline.

So herein lies yet another Samters offshoot and I’m

wondering just how many others may have this without realizing it. My

symptoms were dry eyes which I thought was just because of the summer and the

dry mouth, well I breathe through my mouth quite a bit.