152 Chapter 7 For controls and Low Med patients, the RODI score of the anterior tongue was significantly associated with “eating fruit”, while the the lips”, “drinking small volumes” and “using amouth gel”. Also, the RODI score of the anterior palate had several significant associations for various interventions. These associations were found in controls and High Med patients for the interventions “drinking water”, “drinking coffee” and “using a mouth gel”. The RODI scores of the floor of mouth were significantly associated with “drinking water” and “rinsing of the mouth” in controls. The RODI scores of the inside cheeks had a significant association with “moistening the lips” in High Med patients and “rinsing of the mouth” in controls. Finally, the lower lip was significantly associated with “eating fruit” in Low Med patients and “drinking small volumes” in controls. DISCUSSION Despite the wide variety of dry-mouth interventions, efficient and satisfying treatment of oral dryness still seems to be lacking [20]. Therefore, in our view, understanding the choice for dry-mouth interventions might contribute to a more tailored advice contributing to improved dry-mouth treatments. The use of dry-mouth interventions has been investigated in different groups of drymouth patients; some studies included various dry-mouth patients without differentiating between patients, while others included only a specific group of dry-mouth patients, such as Sjögren’s syndrome [5–7, 21, 22]. To the best of our knowledge, no studies have compared the use of interventions by various dry-mouth patient subgroups differentiated on the aetiology of oral dryness. The present study explored the use of dry-mouth interventions in various subgroups of dry-mouth patients and the potential associations with drymouth feelings and salivary flow rates. The dry-mouth patients used a wide variety of interventions to relieve their oral dryness. The interventions “drinking water”, “moistening the lips” and “rinsing of themouth” were themost frequently used. There was a significant difference between the subgroups of patients in the chosen interventions to relieve their dry mouth. In general, SS (+ High Med) patients used more interventions than Low Med patients and controls. Moreover, some patient subgroups showed associations between the XI score and/or the RODI score and the use of specific dry-mouth interventions. Some interventions were frequently used, which might be related to the fact that they are easily accessible and devoid of negative side-effects. For example, drinking water, tea or coffee and sugar-free chewing gum are easy and safe to use. In turn, it can be anticipated that the interventions “drinking
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