180 Chapter 8 also assess the relation between salivary flow rates and use of dry-mouth interventions. MAIN CONCLUSIONS The present study shows that Sjögren’s syndrome patients used a wide range of interventions to relieve their oral dryness, especially “drinking water’’ was a frequently used intervention care. As for the association between dry-mouth interventions with oral dryness and patients’ discomfort, only intra-oral dryness was significantly associated with the use of dry-mouth interventions. “Drinking water’’, “rinsing of the mouth”, and “drinking small volumes” had significant associations with the RODI scores of the posterior palate, and anterior and posterior tongue, respectively, while the “use of a mouth gel’’ had a significant association with the RODI scores of the inside cheeks. These results indicate that dryness of the posterior palate and the anterior and posterior tongue will influence Sjögren’s syndrome patients to use general dry-mouth interventions, such as “drinking water’’, “rinsing of the mouth” and “drinking small volumes”. On the other hand, dryness of the inside cheeks will cause patients to use a mouth gel. It can be concluded that Sjögren’s syndrome patients are more likely to use mouth gels when their inside cheeks were experienced as most dry, while they drank water, rinsed their mouth or drank small volumes if the posterior palate, anterior and posterior tongue were considered as dry. This finding has provided a deeper insight into the association between the use of dry-mouth interventions and mouth dryness, as intra-oral dryness affects dry-mouth perception and thereby also the use of the various dry-mouth interventions. Altogether, the therapeutic choice of a dry-mouth intervention by Sjögren’s syndrome patients seems to some extent to be related to dryness at specific oral regions.
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